By the Weeping Willow
by Possumpie
Summary: Amber's life is horrible. She has no one but her abusive father. What will happen when a child from another planet is stranded on her planet with no rescue in sight? Together they will team up to protect each other from this crule world and what it bring
1. The Weeping Willow

Growing up is Hard

Prologue

Amber shoved her favourite dress into her mother's big suit case. Her mother had told her to pack all of her clothes into it and not to worry, but Amber was worried, she was more worried then she had ever been. Tonight was different, tonight her mother was angry. Amber knew that if mum was angry then something bad was going to happen, and this time it was going to be worse than their normal beatings. Her mother walked into the room grabbing the suit case and Amber's hand. Together they walked out into the kitchen. Her father was stepping away from an old worn out fridge with a beer in hand.

"I've had enough!" Her mother screamed, making Amber jump a little. "You can't keep us here any longer, we are leaving! And don't think for a second that we are going to keep to our selves about what you have done to us!" They both looked at her; Amber was trying to figure out why she had told him, he just starred at her, and then in a deadly tone whispered, "If you leave you will have nothing! Nothing! You will be homeless. You really think that I would just let you walk out the door and tell the world, huh! Not a chance."

"Just watch me go!" she screamed.

At that she grabbed Amber's hand, picked up the suit case and went for the door, but as her hand rested on the door knob the silver blade of a kitchen knife burst through her chest. Amber screamed in terror and stumbled backwards. Her father ripped the blade out of her mother's back letting her body fall to the floor with a thump. A huge puddle of blood was now beginning to surround her mother's lifeless body, the blood shining in the dull light. She looked up at her farther his eyes were blazing. "If you ever try anything like that you will end up like your mother, got it?" She just nodded and ran to her room.

For the next week Amber cried herself to sleep.

The Weeping Willow

I took a deep breath and let the woodland air fill my lungs. I seemed to spend much of my time in the forest. I greatly enjoyed the adventure of walking among the ancient tree trunks that towered up to the heavens, the scampering little animals that gave the woods its music, and the giant majestic larger creatures of the woods that would silently patrol their territories. I let my feet go on their own accord and just drift around the woods that surrounded my little, broken home. Many of times I had considered never coming out, or just keep on walking until I could walk no more. But no, that would probably be a very bad idea as I was well aware of what my father was capable of and how much he disapproved of running away.

I stopped when I finally reached the base of a gigantic weeping willow that grew close to the edge of a cliff. This was the one place in my small world that I truly felt free; free from my father, free from cooking, free from house work, free from beatings and abuse. Slowly I began to climb its ancient trunk and into its drooping branches. I sat myself down on my favourite spot and looked out through the curtain of leafs. The sunset was amazing, the mixture of pinks, purples, oranges and blues made the sky dance with colours, giving the clouds a soft loving look that could only say goodnight and sweet dreams. I sighed, wishing that it could be my mother saying goodnight, not clouds. Life was not fair; since she died there was nobody to protect me from dad's drunken rages. He hurt me so much when he was like that, slapping me, hitting me, touching me. It made me want to jump off the cliff and join her. Though deep down inside something held me back, I just was not quite sure what it was...

Tears started spilling down my face, my stomach clenched and my heart ached.

"Why! Why did you have to go?" I screamed to the heavens. "Why did you have to leave me? Why were you so fucking stupid? Didn't you stop for a second to think about me?"

Quieting down to a whisper I spoke, "Why?"

I cried; I cried for mum, I cried for me, and I cried for the horrible life she had and the one I was having.

Saviour

I stared down at my dinner; it was nothing special, just some left over rissoles and mash potato. I scooped my fork into the mash then brought up a small portion of it and put it in my mouth, savouring its bland taste then swallowed. Dad was outside, his music was blaring and he was not going easy on the beer. It would not be long before he would become abusive and want to seek someone to let it out on. Shoving the rest of my dinner in my mouth, I got up and went straight for the door. I would have to move quickly if I was to avoid being hit by my dad. Carefully I opened the old door, wincing when it creaked. Just as carefully I tiptoed out and across the patio, but before I could move much further a large strong hand grabbed my arm. I looked up to see my father's stern gaze staring down at me, the smell of alcohol on his breath.

"Where the hell do you think you're going at this time of night?" he blurted out.

"For a walk." I replied, almost guessing what was going to happen next.

Just as I expected a large hand whipped out from his side and slapped me across the face, causing my head to turn to the side. My face stung buy my arm was free. Taking the opportunity I ran as fast as I could, desperately trying to expand the distance between us. I felt the long grass brush by my legs as I made my way across the long forgotten cow paddocks. I only dared to look back when I got to the edge of the woods, half expecting him to be standing over me with an evil look in his eyes, but much to my pleasure he had sat down again and was taking a long drink from is beer. Turning I stepped into the deep dark forest.

I stepped out into the clearing, and stood there for a moment just admiring the sight before me. The soft grass was an almost aqua green, and it rippled and danced in a Mexican wave style as the wind gently blew; the first bites of the upcoming autumn, sent shivers down my spine. The curtains on the willow had much of the same effect, swaying back and forth in time to an unheard melody. I sighed, caught in the beauty that could only be seen on a late summer's night. I took a step forward taking my time to feel the soft grass beneath my feet, and to let my long brown hair get caught in the breeze. I felt so in tune with my surrounding, so at peace, I had forgotten all about the life that awaited me back at the house. Carefully I scaled the tree and sat down leaning against it for support. _Is this the way I should be living? Do other 10 year olds go through the same thing? Am I alone? Yes I am. There is nobody out there that probably even knows that I exist._ My mind went back to the time when mum had told me about the world away from here. She said there were places with lots of houses and lots of people everywhere, some houses that were so tall it was like they were trying to reach up into the clouds. She told me that the world was very large and it had many different lands with many different people. _People. Different people and lots of them, now that would be fantastic! _I longed for human company that was not my father. Someone who would understand my feelings; someone who would play games with me until it got dark; someone who would be my friend. I looked up into the sky, and in the blink of an eye a shooting star flashed across the sky. My mum had told me on many occasions that when you saw this happen you should make a wish, so I did. I wished hard and with all my might.

"I wish, I wish with all my might, I wish upon this shooting star tonight."  
_I wish I could have a friend._

"_Click, click, click, click."_

I opened my eyes and looked sideways, not moving my head an inch._ What in the world was that?_ I strained my ears to try and hear the sound again. _Was I imagining it?_

"Click, click, click"

_There it is again! _ Quickly I span around to catch the culprit off guard. Nothing was there. I cocked my head to the side. _I swear I heard something_. I squinted trying to see if I had missed something in the dull moonlight. Suddenly the air rippled just a couple of branches away from me; I rubbed my eyes to make sure that I was not imagining things. What was it? Was it dangerous?

"Hello, is... is someone there?" my voice thick with nervousness.

"Click, click, click, click, click."

This time I could tell that it came from where the air had rippled.

"You better stop hiding and show yourself, because if you don't... I will... ah... do something, and it won't be good." I told the nothingness, false courage littering my voice.

Nothing moved, nothing made a sound, everything was quiet. Only the wind dared to make a sound. I sighed. _Hehehe getting yourself worked up over nothing Amber, it was only your imagination. Nothing more, nothing less._ Mentally kicking myself for being so stupid, I sat back down again.

"Click, click, click, click."

I stood stock still, fear welling up into my belly. _It's just your imagination Amber, only your stupid, fucking imagination. _I began to swing myself backwards and forwards, trying to comfort myself. The clicking was filling up my head, the sound of the wind had gone and every other noise, all that was left was that unnerving clicking sound. _Sitting here is not going to make it go away Amber, get up off your ass and go find out what it is._ So I did. Though as soon as I stood up the mad clicking died right down to the occasional clicks. Not wanting the clicking to start up to that same intensity, I quickly began to search the tree for the one who was making the noise. I started at the lower branches hoping to corner them at the top of the tree._ Do I really want to corner it? Wouldn't that just give it an excuse to attack me? _I shrugged off the thought and continued.

I was carefully scaling the most outer branches that could take my weight when I noticed something. The air had rippled again on a thicker outer branch not too far away from me. Desperately wanting to find out what it was I leaped onto a branch that just suck out over the unforgiving drop from the cliff. I felt the blood drain from my face as a large 'crack' came from the branch below me. I stood as still as I could, breathing in heavily as I waited for the branch to snap from the tree. The only thoughts that were going through my head was that I was going to die if I did not get off of this branch and fast. I took a deep breath, bent my legs slightly, trying hard not to cause the branch to brake off just yet. Using every bit of will power and strength I had I sprang from the branch my arms outstretched in front of me in vain hope that I just might catch the branch I was leaping for.

My heart sank when my fingertips only just scraped against the branch. I closed my eyes. This was it, I was finally going to join my mother. But before I had even fallen a meter my decent was reputedly stoped. I looked up to see a hand not much larger than mine tightly gripping my wrist. It was quite a strange hand, quite different to any I had seen before. _Not that you have seen that many hands. _I thought darkly to myself. It was the nicest shade of deep green with a lighter green that was also very nice, underneath. Though what really was quite different were the sharp claws that extended from the ends of the each finger. I looked past the hand and up into the face of my saviour. It was wearing a cold metal mask that shone a brilliant silver in the moonlight. The eyes on the mask glowed a deep blood red and pointed off at the ends to create an almost demon kind of look. Thick black appendages with silver bands wrapped around them fell down to about shoulder length. They kind of reminded me of the hair the men had that lived in a place called the Caribbean. Mum had told me about them when I was really little.

Slowly my saviour lifted me up onto the branch, our eyes never leaving the others. I blinked twice, opened my mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then held it firmly shut. We both just stood there for a moment, carefully inspecting the other. I figure that he was obviously male, stood about 30cm taller than me, had more muscles than I have ever seen in my life, and was that same deep green colour with the lighter paler green on his belly, palms and along the underside of his arms. He was also wearing some kind of netting from his neck down to his heals, a linen cloth, and some kind of device around his wrists. It took me I a few moments to click back to reality. Right there in front of me was an Alien! A god damn Alien! Mum had told me about the possibilities of other creatures from other worlds many times when we watched the stars from my bedroom window. I never thought that I would ever see one. I shook my head, this was too much. _Say thank you for goodness sakes girl, maybe if you're polite it won't attack you._ I shook my head again.

"Thank you for saving my life." I said more quickly they I would have liked. He just cocked his head, like he did not understand what I said. _He probably can't even understand English you idiot. Then how am I supposed to tell him that I'm thankful?_ Then it came to me, I bowed me head, hoping that he would understand the gesture and would not take it the wrong way. I looked back up at him, this time though it looked like he understood. Smiling to myself I nodded, and he nodded back. I sighed in relief. It understood, I turned to leave, looking over my shoulder one more time, but he was gone.


	2. Crash

Crash

This misery way killing me, it made me feel sick just at the thought of leaving mum on homeworld. I know it was too late for her; she had gotten that deadly disease, just like about everyone else. I was lucky; I seemed to be immune to it and thank _paya_ that I was. When I had first seen what this deadly disease could do, I almost washed all my pride down the water basin.

It had been late afternoon and I was playing with the prettiest female you had ever seen, she was not much taller than me, had beautiful golden eyes, and perfect lime green skin with deep green stripes running over her back, arms and legs. Suddenly she had let out the most horrific scream, just remembering that scream sent shivers down my spine. Then her body began to shake violently, all I could do was stand there and watch as the horror had unfolded in front of me. Slowly one of her hands raised up to her other arm, still shaking violently; she pressed her clawed fingers into her shoulder and slowly began to move it down her arm. She then let out another dreadful scream, as the florescent green blood spilt from her arm. At first I could not understand why she would suddenly start doing this to herself, but when she shouted out over the pain to make it stop, it then suddenly dawned on me; she was doing this against her will. I knew that this was the disease that the elders had been so worried about over the last couple of days, so not wanting to catch it myself; I just stood there and watched as she slowly ripped herself apart. Tears had welled in my eyes and I had to struggle to keep them back. I was so confused, my friend was ripping herself apart and there was nothing I could do about it, I didn't want to leave her, but I didn't want to get too close to her. Remembering what she said only hours earlier I let out a little battle cry and ran over to her to restrain her.

"_Guan when we are older and you come back from your blooding, I will make you mine." _Her words had replayed over and over in myhead as I grabbed her wrists and held them firmly behind her. Before she could throw me off I gently began to purr to her. Much to my relief she began to calm down and stoped struggling in my arms. I sighed in relief. _She is going to be ok._ That was the last thing I remember thinking before she went limp in my arms.

Pain welled in my stomach again. _It is all my fault that she is dead. If I was a true worrier, I would have stopped her the moment she started to rip up her arm, or at least gone to get someone who could help. _I felt hot tears well up into my eyes again. _No! Worriers do not cry! They take it. I will not let my pride be defeated this easily!_ I took in a deep breath desperately trying to calm down. Then shook my head, trying to clear it from these painful memories.

"What is troubling you young one?"

I looked up to see my father staring down at me from his chair in front of the ships controls, a concerned look in his golden eyes.

"I'm ok father, I was just thinking about when Kan'tra died."

He nodded his head and looked back at the control panel. Pressing a few buttons and giving the ship orders he then turned his attention back to me.

"Guan, my son, don't beat yourself up about what happened, you are still very young and nobody is angry at you for not doing anything at first. It fills me with pride to know that you are not a cowered and you were able to pull up the courage even, though you knew the risks, to try and stop her from clawing herself to death."

I smiled as my father's chest swelled with pride and I knew he meant it, making my chest swell with pride as well.

Suddenly the ship shook violently, then a siren went off, filling the controls room with flashing red lights. The screen in front of us was telling us that there had been a hull breach. I looked up at my father; he looked as shocked as I was scared. Though I would never admit it. Before I knew what was happening my father had picked me up and was now running down the halls towards the escape pods. As we rounded a corner he suddenly halted in his tracks.

"Oh _pauk!" _he whispered under his breath. I could feel his heart beat intensify, making me feel sick in the stomach. _What could scare him so much?_ As we ran on I saw what had got him so worried. Jeh'din was lying on the ground, a facehugger firmly attached to his face. I could feel the blood draining from my face. _How many facehuggers got out? Where were they? How many did they have on this ship exactly?_ Coming out of my thoughts I noticed something quickly scurry out of an air vent.

"Father, facehugger!" I screeched, as the spiderlike creature launched itself at my face, legs spread out, tail ready to wrap around my neck. It felt like slow motion as my father quickly span around, smart disk in hand, in one fluent motion he cut the facehugger in half, ending its short life.

We had left five facehuggers dead in our path by the time we managed to get to the escape pod. They were everywhere! You could hear them moving around in the air ducts, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.

Putting me down, my father knelt down so he was at my height. "My son, do you remember everything your mother taught you, everything about honour, and everything about fighting?"

I nodded my head, I remembered most of it.

"Good, what do you know about Oomans?"

Another facehugger jumped out of an air vent towards us, distracting my thoughts for a second; but my father chopped it in half as if it was nothing. I was amazed at how easily he could just chop those facehuggers in half without taking his eyes off me at all. Ignoring the face hugger I continued.

"They are persistent and devious, never to underestimate them, they make good pray because of this, and they are intelligent." _Why would he want to know what I knew about Oomans?_

"And it's because of that intelligence that we must never let them capture us or any of our equipment, do you understand?"

"Yes but why do I need to know this?"

He looked at me with sad eyes, the normal spark they had seemed to have gone. Then he picked me up and placed me in the escape pod and strapped me in. With a big sigh he began to leave the pod.

"Wait! Father, were you going? You have to come too!" I screamed at him, not liking one bit what was happening. "You can't leave me! I need you! I'm only a pup! I'm not ready!" I knew my pride was being destroyed with my words, but I needed any excuse for him to come with me.

With a huge sigh he turned around to face me, his hand resting on the controls for the pod. "Be strong my son, use this experience to help you become an honoured worrier, and do your family proud. The pod should selfdestruct 48 hours after you have landed on earth; that is 2 Earth days. Watch out for those tricky Oomans, Guan. Goodbye my son."

Pressing some buttons the door on the pod swished close. I was so scared and confused. _What is going on? Why is he not coming? How am I suppose to go back home? Did I do something that could not make him stand coming with me? Earth? Oomans? Selfdestruct? What am I going to eat? How am I going to protect myself? Is Earth hot or cold? Garrrrrr!_ My stomach lurched as the pod broke off from the ship. I relaxed when I felt the stabilisers in the pod kick in.

I was the youngest out of all my brothers and sisters, all of which had grown up and left. All my brothers and two of my sisters were blooded. The rest of my sisters had become successful mothers, giving me a couple of nieces and nephews. I myself was only still a pup, but it was suppose to be only a year until I started my proper training with an elder. I sighed, _two more years until adolescence, two more years until I became like all those other young bloods, ha! Doesn't look like its gonna happen the way I expected, I guess I'll just have to train myself as well, or at least until someone comes and picks me up..._

My thoughts were interrupted as the pod gave another lurch, then slowly I watched the walls around me began to heat up, going from a cool blue to a red hot red. The atmosphere in the pod also began to heat up and I could feel sweat starting to bead on my forehead, something I did not feel often as Yauja tend to like heat.

I took in a deep breath preparing myself for the impact that was to come. I had no idea what it would be like and the thought was scaring me silly. Tossing the thought aside, I tightly grasped the straps, and put my body into an impact position.

My legs buckled; my shoulders felt like they were going to be ripped from their sockets; I think my stomach was still making its way down to this planets core; and my neck felt like it was broken. My body felt like it had compressed itself down and made me shorter. The pain was unbearable. I gasped at the pain then let myself fall into oblivion.

Little Ooman

_Am I still alive? Yes. Because I feel like shit. Wait. What is that beeping noise?_

My eyes shot open. I was still in the pod; the room was cold, giving it a blue tinge in my vision. I undid the straps that held me tightly to the seat that I really did not fit into. _How in the word did I manage to stay in that seat? It's made for someone three times my size. _Looking away from the chair I surveyed the pod. There was a little screen just to my left. Seeing the numerals on the screen made the blood drain from my face.

**12 hours until selfdestruct**.

_I was out for 36 hours? _

Jumping out of my thoughts I surveyed the room again, but more urgently this time. There were many different compartments that could hide all sorts of things. I clicked my mandibles nervously. I had heard many stories when the facehugger had managed to get on the escape pod; hiding in many little nooks and crevasses on their victims ship. Picking up my courage I walked over to a large compartment on my right.

_Good weapons not facehuggers. _I smiled at the thought, and then cringed at my lack of training. _I hope I can pick up on how to use these weapons quickly or I might be in a bit of trouble._

Picking up a spear in my hands I surveyed it carefully. _Even when it is not at full length it is too big for me, this is going to difficult. Hmmm I wonder if there are any small daggers._ I carefully started to shift through the compartment again. _Spear, to long; smart disk, don't know how to throw one of them yet, too big for my hand anyway; Shrunken, same story as the smart disk; I don't even know what that is; plasma caster, yer if I want to blow my head off; Ah, nice but no, it would brake to easily; whip, no; ok here we go, this is what I'm looking for. _

I pulled the twin long daggers from the compartment. The craftsmanship was beautiful; it was designed to look like a Kainde Amedha's tail, the blade of the daggers almost looked exactly like the ones my father had on his trophy wall. _Hmmm I wonder if it's acid-proof and has a poison tip. _I grinned at the thought. Sticking them on my belt I continued to look through the compartment.

I decided that it would probably me smart to take some of the other weapons as well. After all I had no idea how long I would be stuck on this planet and it was better to be safe than sorry. I also managed to find some armour, netting, a mask and arm gauntlets; with a little bit of adjusting I managed to make them fit. After I had everything that I thought I would need; weapons, armour, food, and medical equipment; I carefully made my way out of the pod and into this strange new world.

**1 hour remaining. **

I ran through the strange tall trees that towered over me, their dead leaves littered the ground underneath me making a slight crunching noise as I went. I ran and ran and ran, I needed to get as far away as possible before the bomb when off. I stopped when I reached the base of a cliff. _I think this is far enough, but I think I will feel better if I'm up there. Hmmm I just have to find a way up..._ looking around I found that there were many foot holes so I started the long and treacherous climb.

My arms ached and my feet stung but I managed to reach the top of the cliff in less than twenty minutes. I sighed in relief as I pulled my tired body over the edge of the cliff. Seeing a tree that had leaves like curtains that reached down to its feet hanging slightly over the cliff, I quickly moved over to it and climbed it. This would be a good spot to rest and watch the sky for any rescue ships. It would also be a good stop to watch out for Oomans, seeing that it offered a good hiding place.

I looked out over this strange place, it was nothing like the forests they had on homeworld. In this place there were only trees and a little bit of underbrush. In the forests at his home they were thick, humid, and the only way to get through them easily was through the trees. I sighed at the thought of my home. Oh how much I missed it, my mother, and my friends. A thought suddenly struck me. _What if the ship we were on was the only one? What if everyone else died from the disease? What if everyone on my ship is dead? What if I'm the last one of my kind left in the entire universe!_ I whimpered at the thought. There was no way in the world that I would want to be the last one. _No it's not possible because there are plenty of lone worriers out there that would not have been killed._ I felt relieved at this thought.

A beeping noise suddenly pulled me from my thoughts. Looking down at my wrist computer on one of my gauntlets I saw that it would be one minute that the pod would selfdestruct. Getting comfortable a sat down on one of the branches and waited.

Brilliant bursts of heat shot across the forest, making the trees bend slightly from the shock wave. I was rather surprised how strong the trees were as they quickly bent back into place as if nothing had happened. What surprised me more was the fact that the explosion made no noise what so ever. I grinned at our technology, I wondered how advanced these Oomans are that I kept on hearing about back on homeworld.

A noise. There was a noise. It sounded almost like a sigh. I turned around on my seat to find a small figure standing at the edge of the clearing. Quickly I turned my cloaking device on so it would not spot me. I shivered as I felt a very cold breeze drift bye. The being started to make its way over toward me, taking slow steps, almost as if it was weary of something. When it finally got to base of the tree it paused for a moment then began to climb.

Whatever it was it was not a naturally good climber, but still could none the less. I had to move quickly as the creature began to move to the spot where I was sitting. It had been dark for some time now and I was starting to get really cold, I would need to try and make a fire soon or figure out the heat adjustment settings on my body netting.

The creature that had invaded my tree seemed to be lost in deep thought. _Maybe this is a Ooman, unless the creatures around here easily let down their guard down so they can think... no this must be a Ooman, unintelligent animals don't get lost in thought, and it does have the same kind of body as me... kind of._

"I wish, I wish with all my might, I wish upon this shooting star tonight."

I nearly fell off my branch when I heard it say something. What it said was beyond me, it sounded like a jumble of strange noises.

I clicked my mandibles in confusion. _What had it said? Did it say anything? Is this the dangerous Oomans I have been told about? Because it does not look very dangerous to me._

My clicking must have alerted it to my presents because it seemed to tense up at the noise. I clicked again to see what it would do.

Suddenly it spun around to reveal its face. It was the strangest face I have ever seen, it had no mandibles, and instead it had bits of flesh around its mouth. Its nose seemed to stick out from its face a lot; it had big eyes with a bit of fur like stuff just above them. Its forehead was small and its hair was thin and flowing falling over its face. It cocked its head to the side. _Good its confused, must not be able to see me. _It squinted its eyes then brought its hands up to rub them. _Was there something wrong with its eyes?_

"Hello, is... is someone there?"

_It said some thing again. Garrr I wish I could understand what it was saying. _I clicked my mandibles in annoyance. It was looking right at me but still could not see me.

"You better stop hiding and show yourself, because if you don't... I will... ah... do something, and it won't be good."

It sounded like there was courage in its voice but it waved slightly. It was scared? I made no noise this time.

Making that sighing noise again it sat back down in my seat. _My seat._ I clicked my mandibles again. _That is my seat and I'm just letting it sit in it._

It froze up again then started to swing its body backwards and forwards. I kept on clicking away, it was scaring this being and I was enjoying it. Though once it stood up on the branch I stopped. If it was a Ooman and it was as dangerous as my father had told me I would not be alerting it of my position.

Slowly the being made its way around the tree, starting from the bottom and working its way up. I kept well out of its way as it looked for me. When it got to the outer branches, I stayed close to it. I wanted to find out more about this creature so I was not going to let if fall from the tree and off the cliff.

It looked at me again, but this time I knew that I had seen me. It took a leap to a branch that was between us and made it with ease. I saw the heat drain from the creatures face when it heard the crack. It stood very still knowing that if it moved too much it would be the end of it. It began to breathe rather heavily; I could hear the panic in each gasp.

What happened next was a surprise. Putting a look on its face it bent its legs slightly and slowly. It took another deep breath and sprang to the branch I was sitting on. Its fingertips only just scraped the edge of the branch. Before I knew what I was doing I had its wrist in my grasp. It hung there for a moment, its big eyes closed tightly. It looked up at my hand studying it for a moment then looked up at my mask. It studied that for a moment as well. Deciding that the crouch I was in was getting uncomfortable I pulled the little creature up. It weighed barely anything even though it was not much smaller than me.

It opened and closed its mouth a couple of times like it wanted to say something but then decided not to and closed it firmly shut. We stood there and just studied each other. Both interested in the other equally as much. It was a female, I think; it had milk glands like one so I guessed it was. She was very warm and seemed to be creating her own heat unlike my kind. Her hair hung just below her shoulders and wore clothing that covered all of her body besides her head, arms and lower legs. She was incredibly thin and had barely any muscle, it made me wonder if they were naturally like this or she was being starved.

She shook her head twice; she must have been confused and probably never had seen anything like me before. _After all this is her planet_. I thought.

"Thank you for saving my life."

It said it rather quickly and I tilted my head in confusion. _I cannot understand you._

Then she bowed her head._ Now that I understand. You're welcome._

She smiled? At the understanding I must have shown, and nodded her head. I nodded back. It made that sighing noise again and turned to leave. Seeing the opportunity I quickly turned on my cloaking device so I could follow her to her sleeping place. She turned back to look at me but she could no longer see me. Carefully she made her way down from the tree and ran off through the strange forest.

_Yay I have finished my second chapter! :D _

_Thank you everyone who liked my story and added it to their faves. Hehehe I get all excited when people do that because it makes me feel special._

_I'm really sorry if there are any spelling mistakes but really they are my weakness (and hand writing). The third chapter will probably take a bit to finish as we have officially (I think) run out of long weekends ): _

_Well I'm off now to go and do some of my SOSE assignment =_= oh how I hate it._

_BTW I don't own predators or Aliens and what I say now counts for my entire story because I really can't be bothered writing it every time._

_Why do we even need to write that? It's obviously a sight were people write fan fiction so they are going to use someone else's characters._

_BTW don't go stealing my characters ether cos they are all mine and if you do pixies will come at night and... eat your cookies and will keep on doing it whenever you get some more... yer... so don't steal them... _

_BTW feel free to tell me where I stuffed up because I'm still learning and I need to learn from my mistakes._


	3. So we Meet Again

So we Meet Again

My eyes flickered open, but I quickly shut them again as the harsh morning rays beat down on my face. I rolled over desperately trying to escape the harshness on my tender eyes. I shivered as a cold draft made its way through my open window, and swept over me, chilling me to the bone. I sighed, after all it was my favourite thing to do, it soon would be autumn and I would have to pull out the thick blankets.

Slipping out of the sheets I made my way over to my dresser. I stared into the mirror, a tired 10 year old stared back. My brown hair was a mess and kinked out in many directions that one would not think possible, my face was pale and my eyes were a deep shade of amber. If I had lived a normal life may would have thought of me as a very pretty young girl. Though this was something I had never truly known. Picking up my very old and much worn out hair brush, I slowly began to brush the nots from my wavy hair.

Last night hit me like a runaway train. _Did all that really happen last night? _The memories felt so real it was hard not to think that it did not happen. _Nar it couldn't have happened. _I laughed out loud at the thought, dismissing it all together.

Placing my brush down, I twirled my way over to my cupboard. _Wow I'm in such a good mood this morning. I don't think anything could spoil it. _The cupboardwas old, like most of the objects in my room, it had the most beautiful designs on it, little carvings of butterflies, flowers and fairies were the most prominent. I traced my finger over them feeling the grooves underneath my small finger. I pulled out a light blue top and a knee length black skirt. I quickly put on my cloths, excited about what the new day and good mood could bring.

After quickly gulping down my breakfast of toast and jam, sweeping the front porch, and feeding the chickens; I made my way over the woods. I hummed a pleasant tune, as I skipped through the forest, my good mood following me wherever I went. A noise that sounded terrible a lot like a roar off in the distance reached my ears, but I soon pushed the noise away, nothing was going to dampen my good mood, no matter how frightening it sounded.

I stepped out into the familiar clearing, but there was something quite unfamiliar about it. I looked up into the weeping willows branches', desperately trying to see through the thick curtains of leafs; I could just make out a shape that hung almost limp in the branches. My curiosity took hold of me as I made my way over to the base of the tree. A thick, fluorescent green liquid was slowly trickling down the rough bark. I tilted my head in confusion, never had I ever seen anything quite like it, just the way it slowly oozed its way down the trunk of the tree, and glowed like the fireflies during the hot summer nights. It was almost hypnotic...

I felt a small hot drip hit my cheek. Lifting my hand to my face I wiped the drip off, it was the same substance that was oozing its way down the tree. I stepped out from underneath the source of the dripping goo, and then looked up.

I felt my heart beat quickened. _No. Last night was a dream, nothing but a dream. You're simply imagining it. Ha! No it wasn't and you damn right know that it wasn't so just stop trying to kid yourself Amber! _My conscience was right and there was no point denying it.

There, sitting in the tree, _in __**my**__ favourite spot_, was the strange being that had saved my life only hours before. The same florescent, green goo slowly dripped from a gaping wound on his arm. He appeared to be very tense, which only made his rippling muscles stand out more. I wondered how such a strong looking being could look so frightened at such a scrawny kid like me; though on one hand it also appeared to have severe injuries to its upper arm.

Not much else registered to me as my body started to move on its own accord away from the tree and into the forest. I didn't know what had overcome me to do such a thing, but I had a huge desire to help this creature; after all we would be even then.

I carefully stepped over the huge roots that wove their way through the ground away from the base of the ancient trees. It did not take me long to find what my heart desired me to find; a small bunch of toadstools sprouted from a rotting peace of... _wait. Is that a colony of ants? There are millions of little toadstools sprouting from a heap of ants. How strange... _ignoring this strange occurrence I careful took a handful of toadstools, trying hard not to turn them into mush in my grip.

Running back to the weeping willow, I carefully placed the small toadstools on a surfaced root where I could see them, and not squish them. Slowly I pried a small amount of bark from the willow, I had no idea what I was doing but it felt right. Placing the toadstools on the inside of the bark I began to smash them into the bark, rubbing them all over the inside.

"Click, click, click."

I looked up to see him staring back down at me; his head was cocked to the side with pure curiosity. I smiled back at him. All the while my hand continued to rub the little toadstools into the willow bark. Then something gave in.

Sap began to seep from the bark then started fizzing madly when it came in contact with the ground up toadstool. This mad fizzing then slowly but surely ate away the outer bark until, the ground toadstool was consumed by the willow sap completely. I was amazed at what I had done; all that was left was one half of the bark and a gooey blue substance.

_Only a fatal disease that affects others can make the willow weep that of a cure to another's pain._

I blinked twice. Where had that come from? I tilted my head to the side inspecting the strange substance that I had just crated out of almost nothing but two simple but curious objects. The sap had turned a deep blue colour and still had a few bubbles in it from where it had reacted with toadstools. A nasty odour was wafting from the goo which reminded me of dead fox and peanut butter.

I cringed deeply at the smell. _How is that smell even possible?_ _Garr it's so discussing. I hope green, tall and muscley won't mind me sticking it on his cuts. _Trying hard not to spill any of my newly made medicine I skilfully climbed the weeping willow and onto the branch where the strange alien creature sat.

He seemed to be taken back at my approach; worming himself away from me as much as possible, further and further out from the tree, right out to were leafs started to spring from the branches and droop low to create the trees curtain. Just the way he was moving said everything; he was scared of me, he had seen what I could do and he probably knew what I wanted to do with my new medicine, but no way in the world was he going to let a being so different from himself near him.

Using my sweetest voice I tried to calm him.

"Look, I know your probably freaking out right now but I'm not going to hurt you ok! And besides if you keep on moving back like that you going to fall off. So just stop moving and let me help you."

I slowly then began to approach him, he seemed to tense up but did not move any further backwards. _Good he must have realised that he can't move any further backwards. _I smiled at him, hoping that he would let me approach him more. He did.

Slowly, trying hard not to startle him, I lowered myself down into a crouch, then let my legs fall on either side of the branch, so I would not fall off the smaller thinner outer limb. Carefully I leant forward and gently tapped him on the foot then beckoned him to come closer so I could heal his wounds. At first he seemed to hesitate, looking off to his side and fidgeting a bit, as if he was trying to make up his mind about whether or not he should comply. Then he looked right into my eyes, those deep blood red eyes, that slightly glowed from an unseen light behind the mask, bore right down into my very sole, searching for my true intentions.

I began to wonder what his true eyes were like that he easily hid behind that menacing mask. Were they pools of never ending darkness? Or were they as deep blue as the afternoon sky?

Suddenly I was torn from my thoughts as my to-be patient let out a few curious clicks and pointed a taloned finger towards the oozing piece of wood that was carefully balancing on my hand, and then cocked his head to the side.

_Funny I thought I made it obvious what I wanted to do with this... hmmm perhaps not. Oh well better let him know._

First I pointed at the weeping bark, then to his injured arm, then back to the bark, and then to his arm again. Then I pretended that my arm was his and acted out me putting the medicine on his arm; oozing side down. He seemed to understand what I was trying to tell him, but still was not sure if I knew what I was doing or not. Well that's what I thought anyway.

In all honesty I had no idea what I was doing, it was like my whole body had been possessed and was acting in strange ways all on its own, and then in another way I had a strange sensation that something inside of me had just awoken after being dormant for what seemed like an eternity and was now finally coming to life in all its untamed glory.

He gave out a long and heavy sigh. _Heyy look something we have in common, sighing._ He then slowly lent forward giving me access to his bleeding arm. I looked over his arm carefully; it was a fairly clean cut like it had been slashed by a sharp object, it was also very deep, this was probably why there was so much blood coming from the wound. _How in the world do I know all this?_ My newfound instincts suddenly told me that if I wanted to heal this pore guy I would have to clean the old blood from his arm.

I looked around the tree; half expecting a wet cloth of some sort would be drooping over a nearby branch ready to be used at my disposal. Much to my displeasure no such cloth hung from any of the branches. Then my eyes landed on the knee length skirt that loosely hung around my waist. I looked at the skirt in worry, I didn't want to wreck the skirt but then I didn't want this pore creature to bleed to death. I gave out a sigh almost equivalent to the one the strange alien being gave out moments before. Then slowly I began to rip the skirt in half up my left side, stopping halt way up the skirt, I began to rip diagonally down until the last bit came free at the other side of my right leg.

I sadly looked at my torn skirt. _I hope dad doesn't notice because there is no way in the world I'm gonna be able to explain such a neat rip... _I let out a deep sigh and tossed my thoughts aside, then looked back over to my patients arm. The fluorescent green blood had seemed to have slow down to a gentle drip down his arm. _Hmmm that's good, it's starting to heal itself, this stuff is probably just to disinfect it or help it heal or something._ I thought looking at the piece of bark in my other hand. I raised the torn piece of skirt and gently began to wipe the old and fresh blood that covered his wonderfully masculine arms._ Wait, wonderfully? What is getting into me? Hmmm this is strange, this creature, am I becoming attracted to it? Why are its muscles so appealing to me? This can't be right._

I focussed back onto the arm; pushing anymore unwanted thoughts away that just didn't feel right to me and made me questioned my sanity. _I have been alone for far too long._

After I had finished cleaning up his wounds, I looked up into those blood red eyes once again and that same feeling that he was looking right down into my soul soon followed. Taking a deep breath and not leaving this strange creature's gaze once, I whispered under my breath. "Brace yourself."

In one quick fluid motion I brought the willow bark down onto his gaping wound. Something cross between a hiss and a growl of pain emerged from his throat causing me to wince slightly at the sound. I hated it when I heard an animal in unnecessary pain; this alien creature was no different, but then again, the pain was necessary to prevent later pain.

The mixture seared, hissed and spat when it came in contact with his blood, but still I held it firmly against his wound, even when he began to wiggle slightly from the pain, and even after I heard the sounds of claws digging into and scraping against the defenceless tree. Only when the wound had stopped hissing madly and had appeared to have closed up did I lift the medicine from his wound.

After carefully inspecting the wound I decided that whatever I had done had worked. The wound would be fine and infection would probably not be a worry. _How I know all this is beyond me but still it feel right. Mum did always say to follow your instincts. Hmmm but she also said not to follow them blindly and isn't that what I'm doing? But then again I think that's what mum was also doing that night and look were that got her..._

Shaking off my worried thoughts, I looked back up at my patient. His head was slightly cocked to the side and his stare was intense, he also seemed to an air of worry about him, like he was unsure of what had happened and if had worked or not. I gave him a broad smile and nodded my head twice; indicating that he was ok and that he didn't need to worry.

As if the weight of the world had been lifted off of his shoulders, his whole body relaxed and a long and meaningful sigh was released; but as quick as this peace of mind for the creature came, it was gone again, it was as if he had suddenly remembered where he was and the situation he was in. _Gosh he sure is jumpy for one who could easily overpower me in a second._

Hating every second of this slightly awquid silence between us, I decided to break it. Pointing at my chest, I slowly spoke.

"Amber."

He looked at me for a moment taking in what I had told him, then nodded his head in understanding. Then a deep voice erupted from him.

"Emm'berrr"

I shook my head and giggled. _What a low voice you have my first patient. _

"Aaamber"

"Eeeaaamm'berr... Am'ber.

Nodding my head in approval of the correct pronunciation, I had to desperately hold back the hysterical laughter from hearing the attempts of my name. Knowing that he could not understand I word I say I continued with the gestures. I pointed this time at his chest and cocked my head to the side, silently asking for his name.

"Guan"

**Ok chapter 3 is complete :D *man I'm hungry* **

**Wait was that a cliff hanger? Lol Hehehe...**

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed :D**

**Thank you so much to Mini Ninja who is supporting me :D and thanks Dark Ninja who I volunteered to help with future fight scenes :P You guys are awesome :D**

***FOOD D:***

**I hope my writing is not decreasing in quality because when I look back on it, it kind of feels like it is...**

**Though then again Guan is not as aware of his surroundings as Amber is so therefore I cannot describe things around him with such detail because he does not really notice it :D**

**Any guesses of how Guan got that nasty cut on his arm? Hehehe I know how but I'm not telling you XD**

***I'm still hungry***

**I'm sick at the moment D: but it's not really that bad lol mum has told me to stay home and I'm not gonna argue with that :D **

**Ok so to everyone who has reviewed so far:**

**Deathra-horrorlover: thank you so much ^^D lol you hold a special spot in my heart now as you were my first reviewer and most... awesomest...no... nicest... eh words can't describe it ^^D and yes there will be more as mini ninja is always on my back about it so yer :D thanks a heap!**

**Ah much better :) chow min always fills the belly! *no longer hungry***

**midnight84118: thank you for reviewing :D and yes there will be more to come! And I recon its gonna get heaps interesting :D but then there is that empty spot in the story I'm not looking forward to...**

**winteree: Thanks for the review :D and the next chapter comes out now! Which could quite possibly be the 2****nd**** of June or even maybe the 3****rd**** depends on if I'm slack or not XD Yay! TTFN lol good old tigger ^^D he comes up with the most awesome abbreviations... it was tigger who did that right?**

**Cyrosian: Yes sir you may have some more ^^D or is it mam? Cos I'm a mam :D lol something tells me that's not how you spell mam and I think it has something to do with the red squiggerly line underneath it...**

**light121: hello light :) do you have any idea how annoying it is to copy every reviewers name onto this document, make the name in bold, then decrease the font size down from 11 to 10 over and over again? Lol I don't mind ^^D keep reviewing. And thank you very much :D**

**kingdomfantasyanime453: there is something about you review that reminds me of Mr. Burns off of the Simpsons... thanks for the review! ^^D**

**And thank you to:**

**Suzzanne**

**Deathra-horrorlover**

**optimusXholly streamfireXjohn**

**midnight84118**

**GODDESS-Rita-ofDARK**

**yami-kaze238**

**winteree – I am honoured that u have made me one of your favourite authors :D**

**chibigamer**

**cyrosian**

**Cool Boy56**

**light121**

**GiroNatsu**

**Zanna-chan**

**Will this list ever end? Lol**

**WolvesKey**

** lugnerische**

**kingdomfantasyanime453**

**Oh wait it just ended... **

**For in some way, shape or form, saying that you took interest and/or liked my story :D thaaannnkkks.**

***Runs off and starts 4****th**** chapter* **

**Yay for the ninja crew! :D :D :D**


	4. A Place to Sleep

I'm so sorry this chapter took so long but I had some trouble getting motivated and there was lots of writers blocks and stuff -_- well I hope this chapter was worth the wait!

Thoughts of character and Yauja words in _italics._

Amber speaking is normal writing.

Guan speaking is in **bold**.

_Thwei= blood_

_puck-en= replace the p with an f and you will know :D_

_Kwei Amedha=_ Sly/tricky meat (an animal that I made up that is native to Guan's homeworld).

_Zabin= type of insect_

Ooman= slang for human.

* * *

A Place to Sleep

I watched silently from the treetops on the edge of this strange forest as the little female Ooman pup made her way across a small grassy plane that surrounded her dwelling. A large amount of heat came from the dwelling and I had to firmly grasp the tree to prevent myself from going towards it in an attempt to get warm. A cool breeze drifted by and chilled my already freezing body. _I'm going to go have to make a fire and soon before I die from this cold. _Just as I was turning to leave, far off yelling caught my attention. I turned around to see both the small Ooman pup and a much larger Ooman. From what I could tell it was a male, he was much larger than me but any male or female from my race would have towered over him by a long shot. It appeared that the older Ooman was giving the little female a good scolding, why he was I could not tell.

In a blink of an eye the larger Ooman back handed the small female sending her tumbling to the ground. Then the Ooman's foot made the next assault, burying it into her stomach. _She does not stand a chance! How dare he attack an unarmed female! And a pup too! This is so wrong. If my father saw this dishonourable act he would rip that Ooman to shreds! But then again, what if this dishonourable Ooman is her father and he is simply carrying out a punishment that she disserves? _

Another shiver ran down my spine and my mandibles began to chatter; both from the cold and annoyance. _Never mind that now, I need to find some place warm._ Without giving the dwelling a second glance I went off to find a warm place to spend this chilly earth night.

After an hour of searching high and low I finally found a small cavern that I could spend the night in. It was in the face of the cliff and not far from the top ether. Giant roots from the tree that I had first saw the Ooman in held most of the cavern together. They twisted and turned in and out of the ground, some hanging loosely from the roof while others curved around the edges then came up from underneath. It truly was nothing like I had ever seen in my life. Even more to my advantage was how some of the roots had grown, some making benches, others like hooks, and one was big enough to be a bed. I smiled at my find; this would be perfect, better than I could have ever hoped for. I looked out of the cave mouth, a sea of plants looked back and for once I was not feeling that horrible breeze biting at my spine.

_Now to get some firewood._

I made my way over to the mouth of the cave, which was small compared to the inside. This made it easily overlooked from any direction when outside. It was a wonder that I had even found this cave in the first place. I poked my head out of the small opening which was about 7 feet in diameter. I looked around; making sure that the coast was clear; then carefully began to climb out of the hole and up the cliff face.

My talons dug into the hard rock, making it crumble a little at my iron grip. I skilfully pulled my body up the vertical cliff face; it was a skill that I had gained at a young age. I was constantly climbing over everything; my mother, seats, up walls, shelves, and my siblings.

I grinned at the memory of crawling over my older siblings, and how they would tense up or yelp in pain when I climbed up their backs or pulled on their locks. I was such a little shit, because I knew if they tried to get me off or roar at me, I would either rip a good portion of their skin off or my mother would have made a firm imprint of them in the wall before they had even realised their mistake. Though this had only been with siblings, anyone else that was higher than my mother and father in rank was instantly treated with respect. I had only made the mistake of doing this on an elder once; I was practically hyper one day and a good friend of my mother; who also happened to be an elder; had come around to talk about the training of one of my older siblings. At first the elder had let me crawl on him, that is until I began dipping my claws into the flesh on his back to get a better grip. The elder had roared in shock and anger, ripped me off of his back and backhanded me across the face. He had yelled at me for a little while after that, screaming words that became uncomprehendable as the steady feeling of fear had settled in my stomach. When he was finished releasing his anger and disgust on me he turned to my mother, who thanked him for showing me the discipline I needed. I sat rather quietly next to my mother after that, clinging to her arm for comfort.

I cringed at the memory; it certainly was not one I liked to remember. I then suddenly realised that I had stopped at the very edge of the cliff at was hanging loosely from the edge. I silently laughed at myself for getting lost in thought and pulled myself up over the edge.

I felt the tips of leaves touch my mask as I stood up, their light touch making no noise at all. Everything was cold, giving the night a blue hue in my vision. I walked over to the edge of the strange forest and began searching the ground for something that could burn. _I wonder if branches from these large trees will burn like the ones back home... well there is only one way to find out..._ Digging my talons into the almost bark less tree, I quickly climbed up into the branches that beckoned me from far above. The small branches broke with a loud 'Crack' as my strong arms snapped them off of the tree. Throwing them over my shoulder I jumped from branch to branch then down to the ground; dead leaves flew up into the air as I landed on the ground with a large thump, only to slowly drift down to the ground again. Gathering some of the dead leaves in a net I had taken with me, I then began to make my way back to my cave at a run. _Aaarrrr, so puck-en cold. If I don't get somewhere warm soon I'm gonna hurt something._

When I got back into the cave I chucked the sticks on the ground, making them clatter against each other. Squatting down next to them I arranged them in the way I had been taught then placed the leaves underneath them. I made my way over to the back of the cave were I had dumped my things and pulled out a mini burner. Walking back over to the fire I squatted down next to it, my frozen joints groaning in the process. I tossed and turned the mini burner between my hands, trying hard to figure out how it worked. Bringing it up to my face I inspected it carefully, studying every surface, every nook and every cranny. But I found nothing. I growled in frustration and threw the device at the pile of sticks; the sound of metal hitting rock filled my ears, only to be followed by the roar of leaves catching fire. I stumbled back, surprised of the sudden blaze that had taken over the leaves, then quickly dived forward to save the small device that was still in the fire. The flames felt warm on my hand as I dipped it into its heart, my hand closed around the still cool metal of the device and brought it out ever so slowly, savouring the harsh warmth that licked and flickered at my hand.

I placed the device back with my things, then tended to the fire a little longer before curling up next to its radiant warmth and drifting into a deep sleep.

A Practice Gone Wrong

My eyes shot open as a cold draft woke me from my slumber. The outside world was warm with light and the fireplace still glowed with a dying egg of warmth. Lifting my stiff body from the cold, hard cave floor, I got to my feet stretching my arms high up into the air making my joints crack. My mandibles stretched in a drawn out yawn as I walked to the mouth of the cave. The strange forest echoed with noises as the creatures of this planet carried on with their daily routine, none taking notice of the lost lonely young Yauja. _Well all except the young Ooman female..._

I sighed in dismay at my predicament. I was alone on this planet, nobody here could help me. All my people were light years away. _My chances of survival are slim but I will try my hardest to survive. I will do it for you father!_

With a new burning desire in my heart I made my way to the back of the cave. If I was going to survive in this dangerous world I would have to know how to use the weapons that I possessed. I pulled the smart disk and Shrunken out from the pile of weapons. _I really need to sort all this stuff out if I'm going to be staying here._ I weighed both weapons in each of my hands considering each of their uses and how helpful they could be in the future. Choosing the smart disk; as it would be easier to learn how to use but just as effective as the Shrunken; I made my way out of the cave and to the clearing above.

The grass was cold yet soft on my feet as I took aim at a tree on the edge of the clearing. With a flick of my wrist the smart disk flew out of my hand, only to land with a soft thud way to close to the bottom of the tree. I looked in disgust at my pathetic attempt of throwing the disk.

Pulling it out of the wood with little effort; as it had not dug in very far; I aimed at the tree again. I kept on throwing the smart disk at the tree until I was happy with the force in which it hit the tree. Only twice did I miss the tree altogether.

Confident with my throwing skills I decided I would give catching a go. I moved out to the middle of the clearing, deciding that it would be best to throw the disk out over the cliff, that way it would not accidently hit a tree. I took in 3 deep breaths then flicked the disk out over the clearing. The smart disk buzzed out over the drop, keeping at a perfect constant height as it was designed to do. Then slowly it started to curve until it was whizzing back to its owner at a ferocious speed. I positioned myself to catch the smart disk, but my mind went blank. _Wait! How do I catch it? _It was too late to move, the smart disk whizzed past me making my arm sear in pain.

I let out a roar of pain and anger for my own stupidity. I culched my arm, trying hard to stop the _thwei_ that was now oozing at an astonishing speed down my arm. A light padding of feet that grew ever closer reached my ears. I swung around; my infer-red vision revealing the Ooman girl was coming my way. Quickly taking action I climbed up into the tree, slumping down in the branches. My head spun and a queasy feeling entered my stomach from the loss of_ thwei._

After a while I took a chance and looked down. My head spun again, but stoped quickly when I saw the little Ooman wiping some of my _thwei from _her cheek. My body tensed as she stepped back and looked up. I tried to move but none of my body responded, I was frozen on the spot. I could just hear her heart rate quickening over my own and the shock was clear on her face, there was also the faint smell of fear that blowed on the chilly breeze.

Suddenly her eyes went blank, and her body relaxed to a degree that one would think she had been meditating for hours. She seemed to glide over the grass as she walked off into the forest, leaving me confused, bleeding and alone. I had no idea what had just happened. One moment she was looking at me with pure shock and the next she was as calm as a high elder and walking away with all the grace of a _Kwei Amedha._

It was not long before the little female was back again, but this time she had something with her. She held it loosely in her hands and carefully placed it down on a surfaced root. Using my mask I zoomed into the little pile she had brought back with her. According to the sensors in my mask it was some type of fungus growing out of small _Zabin _like creatures that were native to this planet.

Moving my attention from fungus to the little Ooman, I noticed she was pulling off some of the bark from the tree I was sitting in. _Does she know some kind of healing technique that I am not familiar with? Wait. What healing techniques do I know? None._ Bye now she had picked up a handful of the strange fungus and was using her small hands to smash and rub them into the bark.

Pure curiosity filled my body, causing my head to tilt to one side and my mandibles to tap together, creating their familiar clicking sound. The Ooman, hearing my curious clicks, looked up from her work. My eyes connected with hers, and for a moment I could see the deepest sense of knowing that she didn't even seem to be aware of.

The sap from the bark had seeped from it and began fizzing madly when it came in contact with the ground up fungus, catching us both off guard. I watched in amazement as the sap from the drooping tree reacted with the crushed fungus eating away the outside of the bark, until there was nothing left but a thick blue substance.

I cringed as the smell of the new substance reached my nose. It smelt of death but then it smelt kind of nutty at the same time. I felt sick in the stomach; it was obviously some type of medicine, it smelt of death and had a strange glow about it. It was practically a homemade cauterising paste.

With the bark in hand the Ooman clumsily made her way up the tree. I was taken back at this sudden approach and I horrible venerable feeling plagued my very soul. I stared worming myself away from the Ooman who had now sat down on the branch and was looking at me with a confused look in her eyes. I could feel the small leaves under my hands and the branch begin to bend under my weight as I moved further and further away from the small Ooman. _No Ooman you are not coming anywhere near me with that stuff. _

A calming, musical voice reached my ears, it was the Ooman. _She is trying to calm me?_

"Look, I know your probably freaking out right now but I'm not going to hurt you ok! And besides if you keep on moving back like that you going to fall off. So just stop moving and let me help you."

I blinked twice; a blank look plastered my face behind my mask. _What did she say? _Before I could react the little Ooman slowly began to approach me. Her soft feet making the bark crunch almost silently under her feet. My body tensed up again when I realised that I could not escape what was to come. A smile beamed across her face making the fear and vulnerability wash away from me leaving me feeling calm and ready.

I felt blank, like the world around me had disappeared and nothing but a calm darkness was left. A small tapping on my left foot quickly pulled me away from this and back into the culches of reality.

Her small hand beckoned me closer. _Should I? Is she actually trying to heal me? What if she is actually trying to hurt me? What if this is some type of trickery?_ My body shifted uneasily at this thought._ Well if you don't let her do what she wants you are going to bleed to death. If that is what it looks and smells like then it will seal your wounds. Really your only option is to accept. _

I swung my head around to look the Ooman in the eye. I held my gaze, waiting for her to make the first move. She did not move, continuing to hold my gaze without even a hint of discomfort. Getting impatient, I pointed at the cauterising paste she held in one hand, cocked my head to the side in a questioning matter and spoke, **"Well what are you waiting for Ooman? Are you going to use it or are you going to continue staring at me?"**

She looked at me; confusion was clear in her eyes. _She didn't understand you._ Keeping the confusion on her face she then proceeded to act out what she wanted to do with the cauterising paste; first by pointing at the paste, then my arm, back to the paste, and back to my arm again. Continuing her little act she pretended to put the cauterising paste on her arm, almost as if I had no idea what she wanted.

The Ooman continued to sit there, obviously lost in her own thoughts again. Letting out a long, heavy sigh, I leant forward so she would hurry up and treat my wound. My head spun again and I had to grip the tree to stop myself from falling out. I could feel the little female's gaze on my arm but she made no move to place the cauterising paste on it. _What is she waiting for? If she does not do something soon I may pass out. _Closing my eyes I focused on my breathing, feeling each breath as the air from my mask travelled down my throat and into my lungs.

I could feel the soft touch of a fabric on my arm, wiping the blood away from the wound that cut deep into my arm. It made contact with the wound and sent needle, hot spikes of pain through my entire body. I lifted up my gaze to the little Ooman, trying hard to hold back a grunt of pain. After she had finished cleaning my wound she pulled her gaze away from my arm to meet mine. Her eyes went wide as she gazed blankly at me then took a deep breath and whispered something in her mother tongue.

"Brace Yourself."

A hot searing pain suddenly drenched my entire arm, causing me to growl and hiss in pain. It felt like my arm was being torn open, seared with a burner, then filled up with _Kainde Amedha Thwei. _I wriggled my body, trying to see if she would release me from her medicines searing grip, but to no avail. The pain was immense, my claws dug into the soft bark of the tree, long black talons easily cutting through the wood. Then suddenly it all stoped; the pain, the searing, the burning, all gone. It had left as quickly as it had come, leaving me confused and dumbfounded.

_What? How? The pain, where did it go? What did the Ooman do?_ I looked back at the Ooman and cocked my head to the side. Looking very pleased with herself, she studied her handy work with much intensity, seeming to be lost in thought yet again.

Suddenly my stomach dropped into a pool of worry. _What if she wants the wound to get infected? What if she is secretly trying to kill me? What if it didn't work?_

My gaze was met as the little Ooman looked up from her work and into my eyes. My head was still cocked to the side and she must have sensed my worry as she had a look of concern on her face. Out of nowhere she pulled out a broad smile and nodded her head twice.

The same calmness filled me once again, but this time it was full of light and warmth. For the first time since before I saw Kan'tra rip herself to apart I felt safe. I let out a heartfelt sigh and let my body relax, pulling my claws out from deep inside the wood. _No Guan, it's too early to let your guard down just yet! You still don't know her intentions!_ My mind screamed at me. Listening to my inner thoughts, I tensed up again.

We sat there in silence; I was waiting for her to make the first move. I never allowed my gaze stray from her, just in case she tried something. The Ooman, who was obviously uncomfortable with my stare decided to break the silence. Pointing at herself she slowly spoke.

"Amber."

_Her name? Is she trying to tell me her name? Hmmm... What a strange name, I don't know if I will be able to pronounce that. Oh well I guess I will have to give it my best shot. _Nodding my head in understanding I tried to say her name.

"**Emm'berrr"**

She shook her head and giggled a little. _Wow that must have been pretty bad. _

"Aaamber"

"**Eeeaaamm'berr... Am'ber.**

Nodding her head in approval, she continued with her gestures. This time she pointed at my chest and cocked her head to the side. _You want my name? Well I guess it's only fair._

"**Guan."**

Much to my disappointment she had no troubles pronouncing my name and got it on the first shot. Letting out a huff of annoyance I turned my head away from her, trying hard not to show any signs if she got it right or not.

Crossing her arms across her chest, she gave me a questioning gaze. Silent asking me, _"Well, did I get it right?"_ Rolling my eyes behind my mask I gave a short nod. Looking back at the Ooman, I saw the big toothy grin on her face.

_Well this is going to be interesting..._

* * *

OMG I finally finished it!

*lays down and dies*

Lol not really XD

Wow I'm glade that is over ^^D

I think I'm going to change my writing style a bit. Instead of the same thing happening for 2 chapters just from different points of view, I'm going to do each chapter from a different point of view but they won't be the same thing that way this story can move along a bit more.

Though I think I will have the same thing happening from different points of views for the major events in the story

I have also gone through the other chapters and fixed up the mistakes like I promised a few ppl.

I would also like to give a special thank you to _LeftUnderNightAloneRegretting _for kindly going over my previous chapters and pointing out all of the mistakes

Thank you also to everyone who reviewed you guys are awesome!

I have two new ninja nickname fans! Lol thanks 6 foot ninja and musical ninja :D you guys are pretty darn awesome!

Thank god it's the holidays :D that is probably the only reason why I finished this chapter sooner rather than later.

Awwww I cannot wait until the 8th! Predators is coming out! Dark ninja and I were going to go see it together but nooo she had to have relatives and friends come up on that day! And then she had to go to Melbourne the next day! And I can't drag anybody else along with me -_- if I ask a guy (six foot ninja for example) well that will seem suspicious and practically a date and yer all my other friends are scaredy cats or just not into that kind of thing... Oh well mums just gonna have to grin and bear it XD mwhahahaha

I don't own predators. Story line and characters are mine.


	5. Punishment Undeserving

**WARNING! **

**This chapter contains child abuse, if you can't take reading that kind of stuff I suggest that you stop after ****"Well we better get this over and done with then."** **and skip to the second paragraph in the next sub heading. You have been warned!**

**Also contains drug references and foul/fowl language.**

**Don't own Predator but I do own Amber, storyline and other human characters.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Possumpie.**

Punishment undeserving

Amber

My feet padded soundlessly across the wooden floor as I made my way down the dark hallway. A small draft brought the smell of cocaine, making me cringe. _Oh great he is on the crack again._ Continuing down the hall I stopped at the door to my father's study. Pressing my ear against the cold wooden surface, I listened carefully. I could hear a soft mumbling from the other side, then a loud snort. _Yuck, that is disgusting! _Stepping away from the door I continued to make my way down the hall.

My father had a bad drug problem, not to mention he was a only drug I know about though is the cocaine, though I'm certain there were other drugs hidden away in that study of his. When he is not inhaling some drug he was gulping down beer, or was out somewhere far away from here. I have no idea where he went, but it's always on the same days; Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. One time I had asked my mother where he went, but she only shrugged her shoulders and said, "Work I guess."

I stopped in front of the door to my bedroom, its old wooden colour blending in with the walls around it. The only thing that made it visible was the rectangle carvings on the surface. Suddenly a long drawn out ringing filled the air. Looking back towards my father's study I heard the clattering of the phone being picked up that was soon followed by my father's low monotone voice.

"Hello?"

I crept back down the hall, making as little noise as possible. I could only just hear my father's hushed voice as I crept evermore closer to his study.

"Tell your boss I will have the shipment in by Saturday... Well, that depends on how much you are willing to pay..."

I pressed my ear against the cold study door for a second time, straining my ears to try and hear the conversation.

"You're going to have to do better than that... Deal... Oh and tell your boss that if this shit gets blown, I WILL come after him. So no funny business ok... See you on Friday..."

Pulling my ear away from the door, I carefully stepped back taking in the knowledge I had just gained. _What is a shipment? What is going on? _I leant on the wall across from the study door, considering answers to my questions. _A shipment... Perhaps some kind of item? Hmmm I wonder what this shipment is used for. _

The door burst open, hitting the wall with a large BANG! The sudden noise made me jump in fright that was soon followed by a short gasp as I realised that I had been caught. We both stood there for a moment, each of us shocked by the others presents. Then my father's face hardened, and with his controlling voice he slowly spoke.

"How much did you hear?"

His gaze was intense, I had to look away to avid braking at his mere stare, my eyes occasionally flickering up at him. The stare did not help the fear that was devouring my stomach leaving nothing but a bottomless pit of hopelessness. My lips trembled but no words came out, I could feel the wet, hot tears brimming on my eyes.

He stepped forward, his old boots clunking on the wooden floor. Grabbing my hair he roughly pulled my face up to meet his gaze. I could feel his large rough hand gripping my hair tightly making my scalp scream in pain. Again he slowly spoke.

"Answer me you little bitch! How much did you hear?"

A nasty taste filled my mouth and the wet, hot tears finally spilt over the edges. Finally finding my voice I pleaded.

"I'm so sorry I didn't mean too, I was just heading to my room when I hear you talking and I got curious that's all! I didn't even really hear that much! And what I did hear I didn't understand! Please daddy! Don't hurt me!"

Shadows covered his eyes and a menacing grin plastered his face. In that same deadly tone that he had used on my mother all those years ago he whispered.

"Silly, silly little Amber, crying and excuses is not going to stop me from punishing you. You know the rules sweetheart, no eaves dropping, and no curiosity to what daddy does. Please remind me my little Amber, what is the punishment for breaking these rules?"

My throat felt dried and cracked from crying, but somehow I managed to hoarsely whisper.

"The punishment for eaves dropping and curiosity is anything you think sees fit to punish me so I will not do it again."

"Aren't you a cleaver girl my little Amber," He said with an evil grin, rubbing his hands together he continued, "Well we better get this over and done with then."

My cheeks felt like they were on fire, with each new slap came a more intense burn. My head spun from all the abuse on my face and my legs felt weak. Bending at the legs, I fell to the floor. The steal cap of a boot firmly made its way into my gut, over and over again, making my insides scream in pain. Then it stopped, I waited silently on the floor, curled up into a defensive ball. I could barely feel the groves in the wooden floor over the pain that filled my gut and bit on my face. Tears continued to spill down my face, both from the pain and the fear of what was to come next.

I felt my body chill as the sound of boots clunked back down the hall, all the more closer to where I laid. A hand gripped my arm forcing me onto my stomach. Slowly, in an almost mocking way he lifted my shirt up to expose my badly scared back. Shivers ran down my spine as he gently ran his fingers down my back, tracing a few of the more recent scars.

A scream of pain burst out of my mouth as the whip made contact with my back. Again it striked, sending another squeal of pain from my throat. I could feel the warm blood beginning to emerge from my new wounds, slowly beginning the journey of dripping down my back. With each new blow I felt my body grow weaker and weaker until finally I fell into the oblivion of unconsciousness.

* * *

Diary of the lost

_Garr, so cold. _My eyeslazily opened, slowly letting them get used to early morning light. _What? Morning light? _Images of last night flashed in my head, and I came to realise that I had been out for hours. I was in my room, sprawled on my bed like some used doll. I stretched my fingers and wiggled my toes, everything was still working. A cold breeze rolled in, hitting the bare skin on my chest. I looked down at my own body in disgust; he had taken off my shirt completely and had not bothered to put it back on after whipping me. Judging from the bruises and scratches on my chest he had also touched me while I was out. Continuing to look down my body I was pleased to find that my skirt and underclothes were still in their rightful place.

_Why does this happen to me?_ I thought while shaking my head. Slowly I began to lift my tired body from the bed, being extra careful not to open last night's wounds. I could feel each cut stab razor sharp spikes of pain as I stood up and stretched my limbs.

I looked out the window; soft white puffs of cloud drifted silently across the cold autumn sky. Some of the wood's ancient trees' leaves were beginning to die, turning them from soft summer green to crisp autumn orange. The cold wind blew again making my windows curtains flap around in an unrestrained dance; but also giving my bare skin Goosebumps and making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Shivering from the cold I tore my eyes from the captivating view and made my way over to my cupboard. As I was putting on many layers of clothes my mind drifted to the events of yesterday.

_Hmmm I almost forgot all about Guan... Stupid father... Hmmm I think I will go see him today, maybe we could learn something from each other. Oooo and I will take some food too! He is probably really hungry. And that cut on his arm. That disk looking thing that got him was pretty amazing though. I wonder if he was trying to learn how to use it. Big mistake that was. Oh I better make sure that he does not hurt himself again! _

And with that I was running around the house like a headless chicken trying to complete all of my chores. I was so engrossed in my work that I forgot completely about the pain that was eating away at my back. My father had already gone to where ever he went so there was no fear in bumping into him. Even with that in mind I could not help but be cautious when I walked into his and what also use to be my mother's room. Gripping the broom in my hand tightly, I made my way over to the far side of the room and began to sweep away the slight build up of dust that had begun to accumulate on the cold wooden floor.

I slowly made my way across the room, making sure not to miss a spot. Then a thought entered my head. _I have not cleaned under the bed for a long time now, I guess I better do it before it annoys father._ Getting down on my hands and knees I clumsily swept the thick layer of dust out from under the bed. Noticing a stray sock in a far back corner, I placed the broom to the side and began to crawl under the large double bed. The floor boards were steady under my weight as I crawled ever closer towards the long lost sock. Reaching out to grab it I felt a creaking under my arm. Stopping, I squirmed back an inch then tapped the board that had creaked. _It's hollow. I wonder if I can... just... pull this... out. _I thought as I began to prize the loose board from its place on the floor. With much effort the board finally was freed almost whacking me in the face in the process.

I placed the old wooden board on the ground next to me then looked down the newly revealed hole. The hole was small and the light was little, so I had to feel around with my hands to see if anything was hiding in its darkened hollow. I could feel something but the dark would not show me what. Squirming back with the item in hand, I made my way into the light. It was some type of parcel, it was wrapped in a light, thin paper that looked like it was stained in tea. The paper was bound to it by an old piece of string that was tied into a bow in the middle. Attached to the piece of string was a small card, written on that piece of card in my mother's beautiful running writing was one word.

Amber.

Staring deeply at this parcel, I forgot about my housework, and I forgot about Guan. Getting up I silently made my way to my room. Plonking down on the bed and ignoring the bloodstains on the blanket, I continued to look at the parcel. _It's for me. It was hidden under their bed. That is my mother's handwriting. I would know it from anywhere, after all she was the one who taught me how to read and write. So is it a present for me, from my mother?_ Carefully I pulled at one of the strings that held it together, letting the string and paper slip away to reveal the secrets within.

There before me was a small diary. I ran my fingers across its surface feeling the soft leather underneath my fingers. It was dirty and worn, its black colour long since faded. Carefully I pried its delicate pages open; the pages were similar to that of the paper that covered the book earlier but thicker. Neat running writing covered the pages, speaking of many unknown things I was yet to learn. Flipping to the front of the diary a small note slipped from the pages. Taking it up into my hands, I flipped it over and read...

To my sweetest little girl, Amber

If you are reading this now then my plan had obviously failed and I am no longer with you... The plan that I speak of was not a very good one, but in my current state of mind it was the best I could do. I was to leave with you by my side, but if we were to leave we would face many troubles from the outside world. So the plan was to see if he would kill us, that way we could leave this world and its many troubles it has given us. If you are reading this then only part of the plan succeeded and the dirty barsted decided not to kill you. This was my greatest fear, leaving you alone with him. But I see a fire within you my child, a fire so great that not even the freezing snows of Antarctica could put you out. I believe that if my plan fails then you will find the strength to push on through and survive. I never really wanted you to die because of me and my last hopes of escape, yet I didn't want you to stay in the hands of that sick man. If you were ever to escape and to be free of him then there are some important things you should know about life and the world around you. These things you will find in my diary, I have kept this diary for a very long time, but have never told your father. It is my life story, so read well and look after it. Never let it get into the hands of your father, as he will burn it if he does. Some of what my diary holds may be hard for you to read but you would know what it is like for some of it anyway. Finally you must always remember how to read and write, as it is a very important skill in this world. To do this write in this diary once or twice a month, write of what has happened to you in that month and do not spare any detail.  
I love you my daughter, and don't ever forget it. You will always be in my heart, even after death.

Love from your Mother.

A stray tear drop fell onto the paper before me, I had been so wrong. She was not stupid; she just wanted to get away.

"I'm sorry mum, I had no idea." I whispered under my breath, tears now streaming down my face and landing with a soft tap on the tea stained paper. I felt the gilt digging its way into my soul, gilt for ever doubting my mother and why she had done what she did.

Taking in a deep breath whilst drying my tear soaked eyes, I flipped open to the first diary entry. Soon I was captivated by the story that was unfolding before me, the lovely running writing seemed to do as it name suggests, but only with speed. I read and read and read, and with each new diary entry came a new adventure. I continued to read until I heard the sounds of a car slowly coming down the dirt road toward our house. Remembering my mother's written words I quickly looked for a place to hide my new found treasure. Remembering the loose floorboard under my desk I quickly dived under, making the chair noisily scrape against the floor. I lifted the floorboard quickly from its place, carefully stuck the diary, letter and there wrappings inside and closed it up again.

_Oh my god! I forgot to clean the rest of the house! And I left the broom in the room! Eh, that just rhymed. Why the hell am I thinking that for at a time like this! Quick go get it!_

Racing out of the room I dove into my father's, quickly grabbing the broom I turned to leave. As I walked out the door I walked straight into my father's chest, sending me tumbling backwards and onto the floor. Looking up I noticed that there was an annoyed yet confused look on his face. Diverting my gaze I quickly made my excuse.

"Sorry, came into the room to get the broom, I accidently left it in here when I was sweeping, because there was this noise outside and I went to check it out. I forgot all about the broom. It was nothing though. Sorry."

I gave him a weak smile, which was only returned with a stern gaze, almost as if he was trying to see if I was lying or not. Nodding his head in approval at my excuse, he stepped aside to let me pass. Taking the offer gladly I jumped up and left the room with all haste. There was no way in the world I was staying in there.

I sprinted back to my room, broom in hand. Plopping myself back down on my bed, I sighed in relief. _Wow that was a lucky break; I really thought he was going to get angry then. Oh dear, I forgot all about Guan. I hope he is alright; it would be horrible if my new friend got hurt. I will check on him first thing in the morning once dad has gone. _Smiling at the thought, I got up to put the broom back and to start cooking dinner. _I think we are going to have soup tonight..._

Lost in my own domestic thoughts, I went on to continue doing my nightly chores.

* * *

Warmth, Finally!

Guan

I sat close to the warm fire. One of my hands was laying limp in my lap, while the other worked furiously at my wrist computer. _Come on temperature settings, where are you? _Tapping into a section I had not been into before, I began to read the hieroglyphs for that area. _Yes this is what I'm looking for! Environmental settings, temperature, ok that should be warm enough. _

My body went from bitter cold to humidly warm in a matter of seconds, though that was the way I liked it. Humid. Pleased with my find and the comforting warmth, I let out a soft purr. _I wonder were that Ooman was today. I thought she would turn up. Oh well she must have been busy. _Lying down next to the even more warm fire, I let my eyes close and my body fall into a deep and warm sleep...

* * *

**Wow that chapter was quick O.o lol but so fun to write at the same time! Even though it has quite a horrible bit of child abuse in it, it was still interesting none the less. **

**I guess it was interesting to try and see how it felt like to be in that positing :) **

**Well I hope you liked that chapter as much as I did :D **

**Hehehe Still haven't seen predators yet but I shall on Saturday.**

**Oh and I'm going with 6 foot ninja :D That will be fun.**

**Hmmm what else...**

**Nothing!**

**Hahahaha**

**Bye bye for now!**

***wave***


	6. Still a Child

**Words:**

**I think you can figure out the numbers for yourself**

**Am'ber- Amber**

_**Ch'hkt-a-**_** hyper active, nervous energy**__

_**Kv'var-**_** exercises, hunts**

_**Ch'hkt-a Kv'var- hyper hunt **_

**Kan'tra- Guan's female friend that was killed by the disease in the second chapter**

**Paya- Their goddess of life. (I think)**

Still a Child

I could hear a far off voice, calling my name in a soft but sweet kind of way. It seemed distant, yet rather close. Over and over it was repeated, occasionally followed by other words that I could not comprehend. Stirring from my warm sleep, I heaved myself up.

_The Ooman? Maybe she will play a game with me! _A childish excitement filled my body for the first time since that terrible day. It was a feeling that I had not felt for what seemed like forever, and I was glad that it was back. Jumping up, I got ready, making sure not to take any weapons but the two short daggers. When they were safely tucked in my utility belt, I crawled out of the cave.

Peeking over the side of the cliff face I was pleased to find the female, Am'ber, with her back to me. Silently pulling myself up, I began to creep over to her tiny frame. I paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to startle her yet let her know that it was me. Grinning a mischievous smile, I gently but quickly placed my hands over her eyes. She let out a little yelp and her hands shot up to mine but I only held them there tighter. I could feel her cold, soft hands go over mine, feeling the texture of my skin. She questionably laughed my name, than stood there silently waiting for my reply, both of her hands still around my wrists.

Letting out a laugh I released her face, letting her spin around to face me. A smile spread across her face; giggling a little she grabbed my hand, pulling me off into the forest. We ran through the large trees, dead leaves kicking up in our wake. Her run was not fast; I had to jog so I would not out run her. Side by side we ran, deep into the forests very heart.

I felt free, free like a bird caught on the eastern wind. And alive, oh, so very alive, like I had died then reborn all over again. But most of all I felt myself again, I felt like a pup and that was exactly what I was. I no longer felt like the weight of the universe lay on my shoulders or that deep, gloomy sadness that came with seeing what I had seen, feeling what I had felt...

Though what surprised me the most was the fact I felt completely at ease with a different being running by my side. Completely at ease with the fact she held my hand in her own. It was almost like we had known each other forever. I did not mind. I no longer felt alone.

A large pile of boulders suddenly rose out from the ground before us. We stopped in front of the large mass of rock, looking up to its cave littered surface. Am'ber pulled me in front of a rock then stood on it so she was face to face with me.

First she pointed to the ground, telling me to stay where I was. Then she brought her fingers up in between us, lifting each one of them up one after the other until all ten of them were standing tall. She did that again. Repeating the process, she pointed at my chest, then the ground, then at my chest again, then she covered her eyes, then pointing at me one more time, than she did the thing with her fingers again. _A game? _With a smile on her face she pointed to herself, then to the large rocky outcrop. _I stay here, cover my eyes, and count to twenty while you go to the outcrop? _Pointing at my chest again she showed me her ten fingers twice then pointed to me, then the rocks. Then I understood the game. I was to count to twenty while she hid among the rocks and when I had finished counting I had to go find her.

I nodded my head in understanding, only to be pushed around so I was facing away from the rocks. Placing my hands over my masks lenses I began to count aloud in my language.

"**Je'ha****,**

**Je'hu****,**

**Ke'hu****,"**

I heard her quickly scamper off the rock and over toward the mound of rocks.

"**Ge'hu****,**

**Te'hu****,**

**Jek'hu****,**

**Kek'hu****, **

**Gek'hu****, **

**Tek'hu****, **

**Kkub'hu****,"**

Her sent drifted by on the breeze.

"**Kkub-je'ha****, **

**Kkub-je'hu****, **

**Kkub-ke'hu****, **

**Kkub-ge'hu****, **

**Kkub-te'hu****,"**

A smile slowly crept up as my anticipation and excitement grew.

"**Kkub-jek'hu, **

**Kkub-kek'hu, **

**Kkub-gek'hu,**

**Kkub-tek'hu, **

**Je-Kkub'hu****!" **

Removing my hands from my mask and spinning around, I quickly began to scan the rocks for her tiny heat signature.

But no heat signatures were to be seen, not even footprints. _No footprints? That is strange..._ I began to walk around the huge boulders, scrambling up, around and over every single one, but still no Am'ber. Just when I was about to give up I heard a quiet giggle coming from underneath a rock not too far away from me. Smiling under the mask that was way too big for me, I began to creep over to the source of the noise.

At my feet a large, cold hole burrowed deep into the pile of rocks. I had over looked it before because there were no signs that Am'ber had entered it. The rock was smooth underneath my knees with the exception of the occasional loose pebble, as I knelt down to look into the cave. My short locks hung loosely above my head while I looked around the cavern, half of my body hanging upside down.

A cold hard blackness met my gaze, the cave was empty, and Am'ber was no were to be found. _I swore I heard her giggling..._ Suddenly the warmth of two small hands obscured my vision, startling me from my hanging perch and sending me tumbling to the ground.

The hard floor made contact with my back and shoulders, slight pricks of pain covered my skin as loose stones dug into my shoulder blades. The rest of me fell to the floor with a large thump, leaving me shocked and dazed. Looking up from my place on the floor, I saw a pair of thin, to my vision almost bluish, legs before me.

My gaze left the cold legs and travelled up to the owners face. At first shock and worry was written on her face but was soon followed by a smirk that she disparately tried to hide behind warm hands. My eyes narrowed. _How come I didn't see her? Well at least I can see why I didn't spot any footprints; her feet are as cold as the rock. _Looking past her I noticed that there was more to this cave that first meets the eye. Another tunnel wove off to the side and out of sight. It also didn't help that I looked mostly in the opposite direction.

With lightning reflexes, my arms shot out from my sides and wrapped around her legs, pulling her down on top of me. She squealed in shock from my sudden attack on her legs, the high pitch making me cringe a little from the pain it brought my sensitive ears. She lay on my stomach, her chin resting on my knees. Before she could take action on my sudden attack, I hugged her legs and quickly flipped over, pinning her underneath me. I made no effort to stop her as I felt her arms wrap around my legs, and with much effort, lifted them off of herself and onto the ground beside her. Grinning under my mask, I tightened my hug on her legs then pretended to sleep. Letting my breaths come out slow and deep, my body relaxed but my grip did not fail.

At first she was confused by my antics and just sat there waiting for me to stop but just as I had planned, Am'ber began to panic a little, thinking I had really gone to sleep. She yelled something to me in her own language, my own name at the beginning of what she had said. Then she had her soft, cold hands on my shoulder, shaking it rather violently. Distress was evident in her voice as she repeated my name a few more times before I decided to end the game. Laughing, I let go of her legs and sat up. Not knowing my next move, she quickly shot her legs back up to her body, holding them tightly against herself. She gave me a stern glare, but was soon laughing as well.

We sat there for some time, just laughing. It felt so good to laugh, to feel happy, and to have fun. Things I have witnessed may have made me a quite pup, but it did not change the fact that I was one. No amount of deaths of my own could change that fact, nor could the amount of loved ones who fell at hand of the black worrier; only time could change that fact.

Finally our laughter settled and we sat in silence for a few minutes. I used this silence to take a good look at her using the different vision modes in my mask. She was not much smaller than me; I was probably only a head taller, but her body was thin and there was very little muscle, making her look very small and fragile. Her hair was deep brown in colour; it also looked soft and thick, unlike that of my own species. Her eyes were the deepest shade of amber, which seemed to hold a hidden spark filled with courage and hope.

Seeing her unease when she shifted nervously, I quickly diverted my gaze.

...

"One, two, three..."

I looked up to see Am'ber; now sitting cross legged; hands over her eyes; large grin on her face; and apparently counting.

"Four, five, six..."

The game was on again. With adrenalin pumping through my veins and my excitement soaring, I leaped out from the cave and left to find a good hiding place.

Finally after much searching and a stubbed toe I found a small cave that was not much different from the one we were in only moments before. It was dark and had an area that went off to the side and out of sight. Moving into the dark shadows I sat and waited for Am'ber to come and find me.

The strangest thing about this game though was the small fact that we had one very similar among my people. Except in my case we would have more than two people playing at one time. When we would play one of us would be picked to be the prey while the rest would be the hunters, the prey would get a five minuet head start then the rest would set out to find him or her. The last hunter to find the prey would then have to be the prey in the next round. It was quite a fun game and also taught us some life skills, one: how to hunt, and two: how to avoid other hunters. Our mothers called it _Ch'hkt-a_ _Kv'var, _the name stuck and it was not long until everyone was calling it that.

The soft crunching of feet stepping over loose rocks filled my ears as Am'ber walked dangerously close to my hiding place. She paused for a moment, more then likely looking into my tiny caverns mouth. The same soft crunching began again, slowly moving away from my hiding place. I released a breath I didn't even realise I was holding, closed my eyes, and lent back against the smooth cavern wall. _Wow that was a close one. Hmmmm maybe now would be a good time to get my revenge..._ Putting on an evil grin, I turned on my cloak and silently crept out of my hiding spot.

Am'ber stood with her back facing me, peeking into a hole that could never hold even her let alone me. Closer I crept, taking every step with caution, and being extra careful not to let the small crunching pebbles to give away my position.

Yet again I found myself standing behind her, deciding just how to scare her. The same trick would not work twice so I opted for a different tactic. I moved my hands down to her waist just as she began to pull her head from the tiny hole. In a quick motion I squeezed yer sides lightly making her yelp with what I assumed was surprise.

Amber span around quickly making the cloth around her waist rise with her turn in such a graceful way. If looks could kill I would probably be on the ground squirming in pain. She began to move towards me, I began to move back. She gave me a playful glare and lunged at me, hands outstretched and ready to 'kill'.

I casually stepped back and out of reach from her first lunge. She stumbled forward and nearly went face first into the cold hard rock. I tried my hardest to hold back the laughter, but I could not. She looked so funny with her ass in the air, trying to regain her composure and not fall flat on her face.

Am'ber gave her own growl of frustration and ran at me again, but this time without lunging. Grinning like an idiot I turned and ran. I leapt from the rocks and onto the ground with a silent thump, then continued running at a slow pace. A moment later I heard Am'ber's feet making contact with the forest floor, then the light padding of her feet hitting the ground as she gave chase. We weaved our way through thick and thin trees, dodging the roots that seemed to spring from the ground. A practically cold and wet looking patch of earth came into view and I leapt over it with only a bit of grace. Clearing it easily, I continued running.

A huge slurping noise could be heard behind me, followed by a squeal of surprise. Spinning around I saw... nothing. I cocked my head to the side in confusion. _Where is she gone? She was here a moment ago... _Walking back down the path, I came to that wet patch again. I studied the ground carefully, it looked as if the earth had been disturbed, but there were no heat signatures. If you looked really carefully it was almost as if a figure lay covered in the... mud?

Without warning two hands shot out of the mud and pulled me down into the cool gooey slush. We rolled around a bit, wrestling each other, trying to get the other to submit. It was hard for me to clearly see her as her temperature matched that of the mud making her almost invisible to me, not to mention it was beginning to make some lovely smudge marks on my masks lenses. She was on top, trying to pin my arms into the mud with her feet, but I just grabbed them and flipped her onto her back. Somehow she managed to slip away from me and tackled me from behind, sending us both into the mud. I lifted myself up and growled playfully, Am'ber still firmly attached to my back. The play fighting continued for a few minutes with no victor in sight. Even though I was bigger and stronger then her, she was slippery from the mud and easily slipped from my grasp, making up for her lack of strength.

Finally, covered in mud and panting slightly from the exercise, I managed to pin her arms to her sides. She squirmed and wriggled in protest, trying to break free from my grip, but to no avail. Giving in she relaxed and I let go. We sat there for a moment in silence as I waited patiently for her to catch her breath. Here head was bowed to the ground but rose up and she met my gaze. She smiled a warm happy smile that filled my chest with hope, joy and courage. It was a smile that broke all uncertainty between us; we were going to be good friends...

A worrying discovery

We stood in icy cold water that rushed noisily past our knees. The single sun of this planet hung loosely above us, sending little warmth it could offer on this chilly day. The river was shallow and rather rocky, it ran threw a small gully that lead down from some mountains off in the distance. All around me many silver aquatic creatures seemed to be making their way upstream, I considered for a moment catching one but was too cold and tired to really make the effort.

I splashed the water over my body trying desperately to remove the mud from my skin. It had hardened while we were walking over to the river and had made it quite hard to move, but somehow we had managed to get here. My skin felt numb from the cold and the chilly breeze was not helping one bit. I looked over my shoulder at to my Ooman friend, she appeared to be trying to rub some mud off of her clothing and looked rather humorous bending over her garment rubbing furiously and muttering under her breath. She was still covered in a lot of mud, mostly on her clothing and hair, which stood out at unnatural angles.

A slight shrill of laughter escaped my throat making her look up from her futile attempt in removing the stains from her clothes. She gave me a curious yet stern stare, silently asking me what was so funny. Trying to hold back my laughter I raised my hand and pointed at the nest of hair that was on top of her head. Slowly she raised her arm up to her head and felt the twisted and knotted mass upon her head. The look she gave was unrecognisable to me and was quickly gone when she dunked her head and hair into the icy cold water. While she took care of her hair I took the opportunity to study her more. There was really nothing new to note about her, she was still pale and skinny, her hair was kind of brown still and shoulder length, her wrists still had horrible bruises around them... _wait, bruises? They were not there before!_ There was no way of asking her how she had got them so I let it drop... for now.

Am'ber had finally managed to remove the mud from her hair and was now gently squeezing the excess water out. She looked down at her clothing again and huffed. She gave me a 'look' then turned around. _I wonder what's up with her..._ my question was answered when she slowly began to peel the top half of her clothing from her body. She seemed to wince a few times and it was not long until I saw why.

Along her back were huge, oozing, scabbing cuts that were obviously made with some type of whip. Her back was truly a mess, and that was not just the current cuts the truly disturbed me the most, it was the layers and layers of scars the completely decorated her back. I was shocked, so shocked that I could not even gasp; my eyes had gone wide under the mask.

Am'ber whole body stiffened, as if she had just remembered something she was suppose to keep secret but accidently told someone. Snapping out of my shock induced trance, I clicked my mandibles a few times to gain her attention. Slowly she began to turn around to face me, sadness and hurt filled her eyes but also pain. The entrancing smell of fresh blood drifted by on the cool breeze, filling my nostrils with its primal sent. I quickly snapped out of it as I realised just whose blood it was... Am'ber's.

Blood dripped down her back in a steady flow from the newly opened wounds. I could see her body shiver and sway from the cold and steady loss of blood. Her eyes fluttered, her vision must have been failing. Stepping forward I caught her unconscious body before it could fall into the icy cold river. Lifting her up into my arms, carefully avoiding the wounds and blood on her back I walked out of the river and off into the woods...

I walked among the trees that we had playfully ran through only an hour ago, my Ooman friend limp and bleeding in my arms. Her breathing came ragged and rushed that only pushed me on further and quicker. This reminded me to much of when I first saw what the disease could do and what happened to Kan'tra, and it was scaring the shit out of me. _I only just got her, I can't lose her now! We were going to be the best of friends! _My mind screamed. I began to jog; I had to stop the blood before it was too late.

I leaped over the rocky outcrop that we had played a version of _Ch'hkt-a_ _Kv'var _in not that long ago. The memories of the games we played, and the tricks we played on each other floated around my head, still fresh on the mind. This only made me feel even sicker in the stomach and I pressed on.

Finally the edge of the, oh so familiar clearing came into view, along with the curtain like tree that marked out were my cave was. I sighed in relief and rushed over to the edge of the cliff, but was soon faced with another problem: how was I going to get her into the cave? _Oh paya..._ Taking a deep breath I juggled Am'ber around a bit until she was safely tucked under my arm. My arms were already tired from carrying her here and my single arm screamed out at taking all of her weight, after all she was not much smaller than me...

I felt the sticky warmth of her blood and the rough rocky surface of the cliff face as I slowly made my way down to my cave. I was glad that she was unconscious or she would have been feeling the terrible pain that her position was bringing to her body, it was obvious that the pain was still there as her body twitched painfully with every step I took down. I felt relief wash over me like a river when my feet firmly planted themselves on the floor to the entrance of the cave. Quickly I moved forward and set her gently down on her stomach next to the now dead fire.

I went over to my things and took out the medikit, flipping it open and scanning over the contents I found what I was looking for. I pulled out a small bottle of liquid that was a glowing blue in the colour spectrum and felt hot in my hands. There were two types of glowing blue liquids that my species have, one of them was the type I had with me which is a cauterizing substance. The other is a flesh eating agent that is used on hunts to destroy any evidence of the pray killed by the hunter.

Stepping back over to my friend, I knelt down beside her and tipped a small amount of the cauterizing liquid onto a piece of cloth I had found. _Time to return the favour..._

Pain

Hot, searing pain, stuff that burnt straight past your skin and right down the very heart of your body. That was all I could feel, I tried to scream but no noise came out. I tried to move, but nothing seemed to respond. I gasped for air, but nothingness filled my lungs. I tried to cry, but no tears came. The only thing that did come to me was the soft, painless, darkness that fogged and swirled my mind back into its unconscious state...

...

A comforting warmth wrapped around my body, like a big blanket, but not soft. No this was more of a rough scaly texture, kind of reptilian. Another source of warmth spread over my back, that kind of warmth you get from a fire. And there was a sound; it was soft like a purr that was sweet and calming and kept my body at ease. I turned my attention away from these strange comforts and to my back. A dull thump of pain ran down my back occasionally but otherwise felt numb.

Slowly I opened my eyes and was met with the scaly green skin of my friend's chest. A small smile slipped onto my lips as I realised that it was Guan that was acting as a blanket. It felt good to be held by someone who wanted nothing but to comfort you, to make the pain go away. Even though we had just met, and we could not understand each other I still felt a strong bond to this creature and deep down I knew he would never hurt me. To know this brought a strange uplifting feeling to my heart, a feeling of happiness and joy. And I felt something I had never truly felt before, I felt safe.

Rolling over, I looked around to discover we were in a cave. I took in the sight, the fire, the roots coming out of every surface, my wet and slightly bloody shirt, _thank god for sports bras, _and the brilliant sunset that lit up the sky. Sighing, I closed my eyes and let myself fall back into the deep darkness of sleep...

**Yayness! Chapter 6 is complete! :D :D :D**

**I hope the cuteness in this chapter made your brain frizzle! Hahahahaha!**

**Note: Amber does not have freaky powers, you will find out what that's all about later... Amber and Guan are not in love or making sexual advances on each other in any way. Guan has not matured yet and is still VERY little.**

**Ok guys, gotta let you know even though I don't update a terrible lot (because of school and lack of inspiration) You aint gonna see much of me for a while... In fact the only thing I will be doing on fanfiction for the time being is reading other awesome ppls storys!**

**This is the deal. I am going to write a few chapters, perhaps 3 or 4, before I post another up. This way I can hold ppls interest for longer.**

**But for me to do this I need lots of feedback on how I'm going so far! Over the last couple of chapters I have had only the rare review here and there and it's rather sad. :(**

**I know there are ppl reading this, I keep all the notifications on who is watching, faving, and all that who har.**

**So don't be afraid plz plz plz RnR!**


	7. Dear Diar pt 1

Wow guys long time no see! Sorry its been so long, but I had a run with depression for a while back there and it pretty much destroyed my want to write :(

Anyway. The point is that I am back now :) you guys are just lucky that I had already written these chapters and only needed to edit them! Well there is technically only one up at the moment...

OH! And I have changed the name :) no long will you be calling this growing up is hard! You can now call this story By the Weeping Willow because I like that name better :)

Ummm nothing entirely new :)

ANYTHING GUAN SAYS IS WRITTEN IN BOLD!

Enjoy! 3

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21st of October, 2005

Dear diary

Today I write my first entry, just as mother wanted. Though seeing as it is hard to keep such things from my father I will only write them on the nights that he comes home late, which is like once a month. Tonight just happens to be one of them.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. This month has by far been the most splendid of them all!

It was about five days ago that is seemed like my luck had changed forever! It was one of those nights when father was getting drunk and I just had to get away, and in the end I did; Though that was after I got a good slap in the face. I had escaped to the weeping willow when I came across something quite peculiar. At first I did not know what it was and I was rather scared of it. Only after the branch that I was on snapped, did I find out.

As I was falling, he caught me...

As I found out later that his name is Guan, he is like a human, but not one. One hint is his skin, it's green and scaly. Also he has talons and his blood is fluoro green!

I still haven't seen his face. He is always hiding it behind that mask of his. I wonder why...

Anyway, the next day I found him again and guess what! He had the biggest slash down his arm ever! And I being the good person I am helped him. It was strange though, like I had no idea what I was doing but for some reason this little voice in the back of my head directed me where to go, though it still felt like it was part of me.

After I fixed him all up we exchanged names and just sat with each other for a while. That was the beginning of our friendship.

The day after that my father abused me again, he slapped, kicked and whipped me. It was really painful. I also have a sinking feeling that he touched me while I was out. I feel so dirty when I think of him doing that to me, it does not feel right at all. Mother told me I was right, and that it is very wrong for him to touch me like he does. I'm just glad that he has not taken it any further...

Yesterday was the best day ever!

I went to go see Guan and he was being really playful. He also seems to like playing tricks and sneaking up on me, it's rather amusing. We played the most awesome game of hide and go seek in the pile of boulders and I think I won! After that we had a wrestling match in the mud. Guan won that one. It was really fun, but when we were down at the lake I accidently ripped open my whip scars, and I fainted. It was strange to have your sight fading in one place, only to blink back on in another. I do also remember pain, but I don't know what from. Oh well... I remember waking up once; I came face to face with Guan's chest. I'm really not sure if it was real or just a dream, because when I woke up I was snuggled up in my bed and light was coming through my open window. All I know for sure is that Guan took me home. Nobody else could have. Could they? I will ask him when we break this language barrier. I have so much I wish to ask him, so much to share... I just hope it happens soon.

16th November, 2005

Dear Diary

The month has been fairly awesome.

It has started to get really cold, I can Guan does not like it. He barely comes out of his cave and looks rather miserable. I have actually started wearing my thick jacket out. Oh and I could not help myself, he was so cold and naked looking. Like honestly, he has nothing but that netting stuff and is loincloth. You see diary, I have two jackets. And I figured I could at least lend him one for the winter. I could not help but laugh when I saw him in that jacket; it was the most comical thing ever! And what was even funnier was the fact that the jacket was a dull pink in colour, it totally did not go with his complexion, pink and green equals ewwww. But I'm not going to wear that hideous thing! And its way to big for me anyway. It fits him well and I don't think he notices the colour, or just does not care. Either way I get a good laugh every time I see him.

Also we have started breaking this language barrier! His language is so complex and impossible to say, I think he feels the same about mine. So, we have come to an agreement. We will learn each other's languages but we are not going to bother to learn how to speak it, just understand it. That way we can carry on a conversation without worrying about pronouncing it correctly. Though I can't get over how different his language is from mine! When he speaks it's all clicking and growling, but if you listen carful you can actually make out the words. For example, when he said tree it was like two clicks really fast but really he said Dt.

Father has not bothered me at all this month, I wonder why? He normally loves to bring pain to me...

23rd December, 2005

Dear Diary

Winter has fallen upon the land. A few days ago snow first made its appearance, floating down to the earth in light, delicate crystals. When Guan first saw it he was so amazed, it was funny. I also laughed hysterically when he asked if it was dangerous. I told him, not at the moment, and explained to him how it would soon be covering everything in thick, fluffy and cold blankets. He didn't seem too pleased about the cold bit, but I just shrugged it off. I figured pretty quickly that he had never seen snow and asked why. He told me that the planet he lived on before was made up of jungles and deserts. The jungles had lain in the northern and southern parts of the planet while the equator was one big strip of desert with a few oceans here and there. With a laugh he also added that his planet was a LOT warmer than this one. In defence of my planet, I told him that it could also get rather hot on this planet. All I got from that was a snort.

It's funny how you can remember such conversations in detail. I guess I have had a lot of time and not much to cloud my mind.

This language barrier is nearly broken. We can easily have a full on conversation now without keeping our words too slow. It won't be long now and we will both be fluent in understanding each others languages.

8th January, 2006

Dear Diary

Today I found a camera!

I was cleaning out a cupboard that I had overlooked as it was never used, and right in the very back was, I think mum called them a... Polaroid? Hmmm yes I think that's what it's called. Anyway, there it was in the back of this cupboard collecting dust. I was really careful that father did not see it as he was home for the weekend and I didn't want him to take it off of me. I have hidden it in my room where I hid my diary. I hope it still works, I'm afraid if I try and see if it does I might get caught.

Tomorrow when father leaves I will take it into the woods and Guan and I can figure it out together. He seems to have an interest in technology, and if anyone can figure it out it will be him.

It is official; I think I know nearly every word in the Yautja language. Yautja is what they call themselves. Personally, I think it's an awesome name and suites there bad assed culture! Guan has explained it all to me, and it annoys me to know that I will never know as much of my own culture then Guan knows about his own. I have given up ever having a half normal life, because there is no way in hell I would ever leave Guan's side, he says the same to me. We are best friends and there is nothing that could ever break us apart. I know enough to know that Guan will never be accepted by my people, though he says that if I can prove myself I might be accepted by his.

2nd February, 2006

I inhale deeply the cold frosty air, the smell of the water seem to delight my senses. The expanse of dead frost covered trees stretched out forever in front of us as we sit in silence, enjoying each other's company. I am wearing one of Am'ber's 'jackets' over my heated netting. It's quite uncomfortable but keeps the harsh wind from biting and stealing the warmth away from my skin. It must look strange on me too; I can see that sometimes Am'ber struggles to hold back her laughter. I could not care less.

I have nearly been here for four Ooman months and already the weather has drastically changed. When I first arrived the weather was cool and bearable, the trees still had leaves but were only barely hanging on. Now the cold is so intense in makes the water that falls from the sky turn into crystals and cover the land in big wet fluffy blankets. Apparently this is called snow. I hate the cold; it makes me feel sleepy, dopey, and slow. The only reason I even bother to come out during the day is to spend time with Am'ber and catch the little sunlight there is. Food is not a problem because before it started to snow I had somehow managed to take down a large, hooved creature that had a large set of antlers coming out of its head. Am'ber tells me that it is a stag, which is a male deer. I had been so pleased with my kill I decided to keep its antlers as a trophy as I don't know how to prepare a skull yet. I think Am'ber was also impressed with my kill too, she said that it is not an easy task to take down a full grown stag.

I smiled at that thought. I really wanted my friend to be impressed with what I could do, though I don't know why. I heard Am'ber huff beside me, turning my head to face her I could see that there was something bothering her. I scrunched up my brow in confusion of what could it have been so I disided to ask, **"Are you alright Am'ber? You seem bothered."** She just looked at me and smiled while shaking her head. "No I'm alright, I was just thinking about something..." I raised a mandible behind my mask. **"And what might that be?" **I asked wriggling over closer to her. She looked off into the distance for a moment then turned her body around so she was facing me. "Well when I was reading mum's diary there was a part in it that bothered me a lot. She had written that when I become of age to be able to make babies I will bleed once a month. But it didn't say were! Am I going to bleed out of my mouth? Will I randomly cut myself on something? Will it be my ears? Or what about my butt?" I looked thoughtfully at her; if I was in her situation I would probably be worried too. Taking in a deep breath I replied, **"Well if this is something to do with babies then it might be where you make babies. Did your mother ever tell you how that worked?" **She shook her head; that worried look still on her face. **"Well I don't know if our species bread the same but this is how ours work..."**

23rd March, 2006

Dear Diary

The weather is getting warm again; the snow has already begun to melt. I can't wait until spring is here; I think Guan is excited too. He really hates the cold, like really, really, really, really hates the cold. It will be a relief when he finally stops complaining about being freezing all the time. One day we are going to travel away from this place, somewhere warmer that way I will never have to listen to his whining again! I remember mother telling me about the beach and the ocean, perhaps we will go there and find a place away from the world and be warm.

I still wonder who he hides behind his mask, I have asked him to show me his face but he just replies that he is not so sure about the air and does not want his lungs to explode or something. I guess I don't want to take that risk ether... but then how is he eating? I think I shall have a chat to him about that tomorrow...

Over the last month Guan has been teaching me how to fight! It's pretty much just the basics that he knows but at least I'm not as venerable as I was before. He says that I can use some of the techniques to defend myself against my father but I'm too afraid that he might wonder where I learnt it and start asking questions, and possibly toucher... I remember a time when he did that to mother when she would not tell him something. I have no idea what it was; she would not tell me ether, all I know is that I don't want the same thing happening to me.

From my training with Guan I can now get out of someone's grasp if they have grabbed onto me. I can almost stop a punch too, a light one anyway. Guan tells me that I am very fast and nimble, good on my toes, and that wearing out my opponent by simply dodging them would be my safest bet in a fight. I'm cool with that though, my punch is rather weak and my kick is pathetic so it would be a safer option.

Can't wait until spring...

10th April, 2006

I stalk through long green grass, the colour of my skin blending in perfectly and making me near invisible to the Stag that leisurely munched on grass in front of me. I looked to my left to see Am'ber crouched down next to me, also near invisible as she had my camouflage on. It didn't take a genius to figure out that her pale skin would have stood out among the lush green grass. So to solve that problem I lent her my camouflage. Giving the signal, we slowly went in for the kill, carefully creeping around each side of the animal unseen. I was impressed, in the few Ooman months I had been teaching her things of my people she had gained many skills. She was light on her feet, taking each step with care; she was also fairly fast, making stalking natural for her.

I gave her another signal, and then I pounced right onto the back of the beast. Just as I had planned the Stag went into a state of panic, tossing its head around desperately trying to fling my body from its. Then it began to run, but before it could get far it was stumbling to the ground. I looked over the stag's shoulder and to my pleasure I saw Am'ber, combi stick in hand whacking at the beasts legs, forcing it to the ground. Not waiting another second I pulled one of my _Kainde Amedha _knifes and ran it straight through the stag's throat. It made a strange gurgling sound before going tumbling to the ground, blood spewing from the slit in its throat.

Once the beast had finally taken its last bloody breath and became forever still...

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I hoped you liked it :)

Please dont kill me for taking so long!

Love ya all :3


	8. Dear Diary pt 2  Guan's Nightmares

Heyy guys! Long time no see!

I have to apologise for my lack of posting :( but well my life has kinda been on the real busy side recently and I have not had time nor been bothered to write. I have written like half of chapter 9 and this chaper has been sitting in my documents for quite some time now, but you see I never wanted to post it because as you will notice when you read this chapter, there are a few Yautja worlds I have not found the translation for :S If you do know the translation or a transltaion similar please do not hesitate to tell!

I hope you like this chapter! Because I sure do!

Loves you all 3

Translations

_**Guan-Dt - Night Tree**_

_****__**U'sl-kwe Kantra - Death Prayer**_

_****__****__Kainde Amedha - Hard Meat/Xenomorphs/Aliens_

_****__******A'ket'anu Tjau'ke - Beautiful rock/Like a gemstone**_

_****__******Ik'kya - Disease**_

_****__**********Je's'he'ie-te'a - I can't find what the translation was :'(**_

_****__******Me'tei - Time**_

_****__**********Nihkou'te - tooth/tusk**_

_****__**********Dachande - different knife**_

_****__**************Payas** **Leitjin-de** - Remember God's Practice_

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27th May, 2006

...

The sky was an orangey, gray. The kind of sky you would expect to see on a smoke filled sunset. But that was not the case. This planet was sick, and so was what dwells upon it.

I wandered aimlessly throughout broken streets, the bodies of unfamiliar faces lying as corpses upon the ground. The air was overwhelming with the smell of death and the world was painted with a dust so thick that suffocation felt imminent, but I payed no heed to it as I continued on my way.

One would think that at a time such as this the streets would be laid with an eerie silence, but this was not the case. The horrific roars of pain filled my ears of those who had yet to die.

I walked past a mother, not much older than my own. She sat upon a crate; tears of pain fell from her eyes as she watched her child use its sharp baby teeth to slowly rip the flesh from its own body. Whilst the mother watched, her own talons dragged down her face, making her green thwedi pore from her speckled skin.

I turned away from this horrible sight and continued to walk down the street.

This was not my home town, merely a place I visited often. This place sat on the edge of the desert, while mine rested in the middle of the thick humid forest. I had run for days from my village, the head elder had told me to go and warn the people of the desert of this deadly plague. Now I know I must not have run fast enough, I was seeing it all over again, the Yautja of the desert were dying just as those of the forest had.

I was sent by the elder because I was the only one showing no signs of the sickness. His words replayed over and over again in my head as I walked closer to the Hall of the High elders.

_"Young Guan, I need you to run, run as fast as you can, through the forest, over the mountains and to the __**(city of the desert).**__ I trust you have been there before and know you way. Please warn the High Elders of this; please inform them that there is nothing left of the __**Guan-Dt**__ village. I just hope we are not already too late..."__  
_  
Out of nowhere another voice called, pulling me away from the voices of the past, but this voice was not sickly or in pain. Again it called out, _"Pup! Wait!"_ I spun around to face the owner of the voice. It was another desert dwelling Yautja but not from this area of the desert. He was from the Southern province where the sand was a deep red in colour; this fact was reflected by his deep red skin. I looked at him in wonder, cocking my head to the side. _Why is a southerner here?_ The older Yautja walked up to me and studied me with the same regard then spoke, _"You're not from around these parts are you pup? Judging from the colour of your skin I would guess that you are a forest dweller from further up north?"_ I looked at him with sad eyes and nodded my head then quickly faced the ground again. _"Why are you here pup?"_he said softly.

Tears rolled down my face as I explained to him what had happened to my village. All the death, the roars of terror and pain, the heart wrenching confusion, and the final words of the village's elder...

The southerner looked at me with pity then softly told me, _"Shhhh pup, it's happened everywhere, I ran all the way from the town of __**U'sl-kwe Kantra**__ to tell the High Elder the same thing. Come now, we must continue to fulfil our elders' last wishes."_With that he took my hand in his own and led me silently to the Hall of the High Elders.

Slowly we made our way up the cold stone steps, my short un-braided hair falling in front of my shoulders as I studied the markings that danced their way up the steps. I had never been to the Hall of the High Elders before and under any normal circumstance I would have simply been blown away from what lay before me. Battles of the High Elders had been carved into the rock, their victories displayed for everyone to see. Shades of red and blue created the scene with rocks outlining the victors and their pray that seemed to glow with their own unseen heat. But this was not a normal circumstance. I could not care for what these mighty hunters had achieved, all I wished for was all the pain and suffering to stop; all the memories to be gone; and my family and friends returned.

Reaching the top of the staircase we nervously made our way down the Hall and towards the main chambers. Similar carvings flowed across every available surface, forever trapped in a frozen dance. The air was still and the smell of death was laid on thick. There was also a slight touch of fear and it didn't take me long to realise that it was drifting from the adult beside me. Biting down the fear that was beginning to infect my soul, I kept my eyes forward and my thoughts empty, carrying on like there was nothing wrong.

The body of one of the High Elders lay still on the floor, his hands holding onto one of his beat-less hearts above the gaping hole in his chest. One would have thought this was the work of _Kainde Amedha _spawn, but regretfully we both knew this was not so. His eyes sent shivers down my spine, they were dull and foggy but that look of fear and pain still showed strongly deep in their now dead heart. Bowing, to show our respects to the deceased, we continued on our way, I was only young but I knew he was beyond any kind of help now.

We continued to walk down the Hall of Stories, as I had dubbed it. I was only half aware of the new presence that joined our side down the hall, then the other, and then another, until there was about seven of us walking down the hall together. The moment felt important so I kept my head forward and my emotions in check.

The hall suddenly opened up into a large chamber. It was a large dome that stretched high up above our heads coming to a point in the centre where a large mural of a Hard Meat Queen, in all her majestic glory stood tall as hunters surrounded her there weapons held high and ready for attack. My eyes glided down from the centre of the story and to the four great thrones that rested upon a large platform. What I saw brought fear into my heart but yet still brought that tiny ray of hope. The first chair was empty but blood in bright splatters decorated its every open surface. In the next chair the limp body of one of the male elders sat slumped in his seat; one of his arms hung at an odd angle and his eyes were not in their sockets but rather a bloody mess that covered his talons. The very last chair held a female High Elder, I almost gagged at the sight of her and her eyes sent shivers down my spine as she bleakly looked out towards us, the life in them long gone. But the third chair was different, oh so magnificently different. In it sat an alive and breathing High Elder. It was not hard to tell from her garbs that she was a **(witch/gypsy).** From the corner of my eye I watched everyone bow down. Following suite I got down on one knee and bowed my head in respect to the last surviving High Elder of the **A'ket'anu Tjau'ke **clan...

"GUAN WAKE UP!" my eyes shot open to see Am'ber kneeling next to me shaking my shoulder violently. Relieved that I had escaped the clutches of that nightmare I groggily asked. **"Grrr what is it Am'ber?"**She gave me one of those killer smiles that I had become so familiar with then grabbed my hand. "Come on Guan! It's time to get up you big lazy bum! It's nearly lunch time!"

30th June, 2006  
Dear Diary

Today was a good day. Guan and I went around looking at all the different types of plants and I told him what they were and stuff. For some reason I felt shocked when he said that none of these plants resembled any he had seen before. But I don't know why. I guess I should of expected such an answer but then again how much more different could they be?

Nearly two weeks ago I think it was my 11th birthday. As usual I got nothing. Guan had never heard of it so he was excused, I just miss how mum would always give me little things every time my birthday came. I guess I could consider Guan an extremely early birthday present? He is by far the best thing that has happened to me. It's like a horrible weight has been lifted off my shoulders, a weight I had never really noticed before.

It's starting to heat up again; summer is on its way. Guan seems quite pleased about the increase of heat. It's quite funny to watch him sunbake on a rock while he purrs away. I wish I could purr like he does, it is seriously epic!

Oh well, I think fathers car just pulled in the driveway, I have to go for now. Goodbye.

20th July, 2006

"Rise young ones." The female's voice echoed throughout the Hall of the High Elders. Slowly each one of us rose from our places to look up at the last High Elder. She looked down at us with a mixture of sadness and relief. Again she spoke. "Over the last few days **Ik'kya** has spread across this planet at a sudden and alarming rate, she has left nothing but death and despair in her wake. In the end you seven will be all that will remain of the **A'ket'anu- Tjau'ke** clan. Remember each other's faces well, as you will meet again. I do not have long left because even I am not immune to this terrible fate, so I will have to be quick." Taking in a deep breath she turned to the first person in the group. She was a young female, probably only a few years older than myself. Her skin was a mixture of light greens and soft sandy yellows, a Yautja from the floodplains in the west. She also was yet to have her hair braided. "Young **Je's'he'ie-te'a**, remember your namesake, you are one of my daughters now. You will learn the practice of a (**witch/gypsy**). This is an art, not a trade. It will require a lot of skill on your part. I will give you all you need soon. Once all is done here, seek out the one who goes by the name of **Me'tei**, he will teach you all you need to know."

Next she turned to a large male. His skin was a different shades of brown and gray and almost seemed to be rocky, more than likely a mountain dwelling Yautja. "**Nihkou'te**, you are a fine smith, one of the best on the planet. You hold the knowledge to our oldest traditions, what gave our clan its name. You can wield Gemstones in such a way that it can impress even the most meticulous. This is something we must never loose. When our clan rises from the ashes I wish for you to pass your knowledge on to the next generation." The Gray Yautja nodded his head in agreement then replied in a deep voice that was heavy with the accent of his rocky home. "I will do my best High Elder to make sure that our traditions do not fade away." Pleased, the High Elder acknowledged the Yautja's reply then moved onto the next in line.

My attention was drawn away from the High Elder and the other adults, and to the young female called **Je's'he'ie-te'a**. Fear shone clearly in her yellow eyes and her fists was clenched into tight balls. Her gaze met mine and for a moment we held it. We were both pups, we were both stuck in this world of death. For this we held a connection. I felt that it was best not to forget her face.

She spoke to three more in similar ways to the first two. First a young and pregnant mother who was to bring the clan up from the ashes. Then a tech, his mission was to step in and help the remains of the clan with anything technical. A healer, who would stay behind to find out as much as could about the disease and the remaining seven's immunity.

Then she moved to the southerner next to me; the one who had found me in the street and helped me on my way here. "**Dachande**, of this clan you are the only one left who really knows our ways and teaching methods in the hunt. When it is your time to meet with the younger Yautja of our clan again, teach them all you know, and make them stronger. I will talk to you more in depth soon. **Payas** **Leitjin-de**." Dachande bowed his head in respect while muttering something about doing his best.

Finally the High Elder turned to me. I could feel my nervousness increase inside of me but I held myself strong, trying not to look weak in front of someone so powerful.

"Guan, you are the youngest of all of us here. Yet you play one of the most important rolls amongst us. Even though the healer will stay here to try and solve this **Ik'kya's**puzzle. You will be the one who will find the key. It is your mission to find it and bring it to us. I don't know what this key will look like but deep down inside, you will know when you have found it. Just trust your instincts and you will know." Taking in a deep breath she then looked across us last remaining seven.

"Come now young ones, I must speak with each one of you privately. This way please." With unmatched grace the High elder rose from her chair and began making her way down another hall. Her soft cape flowed regally as she went. Not leaving our current order, we followed.

It seemed like time had slowed down, every step I took seemed to be in slow motion. The room swirled around me and time finally stopped. From the corner of my eyes I watched as darkness fell upon my vision as darkness fell upon the night. Then there was nothing but darkness. Then another colour filled my vision. It was red; the colour of warmth and light. Slowly my eyes opened, only to fall upon the cold rock and roots that made up the ceiling.

I groaned distastefully and rolled back over, falling back into a deep but now dreamless sleep.

15th August, 2006  
Dear Diary

Today when Guan and I were walking down the river the most amazing thing happened!

I SAW OTHER HUMAN BEINGS!

The only problem was that they looked as friendly as my father. They had all sorts of weapons with them like guns, knives, and traps. I remember Guan whispering in my ear. **"These Oomans, they are here to hunt. I can smell their excitement and anxiety in the air. I think its best we stay away from them; I don't think they are safe."**I could not help but agree with this, there was definitely something shifty about them.

We mostly shook off the experience and just continued playing.

I wonder why they came here...

10th September, 2006  
Dear Diary

Autumn is coming soon. I can feel it in the air. That soft chill that sweeps so delicately on the wind. Guan is not going to be happy about this... he never is when it comes to cold things.

Nothing of major interest happened this month. Guan and I have been playing games, hunting and practicing our skills every day. I am getting stronger and so is he. I just hope we can put that into good use...

17th October, 2006  
Dear Diary

Autumn is here again, another year has come to pass and the trees leaves still glow that autumn orange. Slowly they have been drifting down to the forest floor where they will become one with the earth again... but that is a slow process. So while we are waiting, Guan and I have been messing around with them! Throwing them up in the air and watching them as the gently float down to earth. It is like a strange fantasy where everything is perfect. The leaves are just the right shade of orange; the sky is the perfect shade of blue and the wind in not too chilly. If only things could stay like that forever...

It's been about a year now I think. An entire year since Guan and I first met. And each month I will cherish for the rest of my life because these are truly the best. Father seems to busy lately so he has been laying off the alcohol and drugs, which is good for me. I hope he stays sober forever! Perhaps things will really start changing for me then...


	9. A Look into Insanity

A Look into Insanity

I slowly drove my brand new black ford down the rocky driveway. I casually watched as the great pine trees rolled past. The sky was a cold gray of clouds that covered the earth in a chilly blanket that screamed for the release of rain. I took in a deep breath of the sweet woodland air; the smell of water was heavy. A storm was brewing and a big one too.

Biting my lip I picked up some speed. Last thing Iwanted was to get my new car dirty. I had to abandon my old one when the cops caught onto the little drug exportation that we were doing at the docks. I would have been able to keep my car if it was not for Frankie. The basted claimed that he had been running cops all his life... never once had they caught him. One would have thought his grandma had taught him to drive. Luckily that one had also been stolen as well... There was no way they were finding me.

All of a sudden I hit a rather uncomfortable bump. Swearing and cursing the gods, I slowed down. _No need to put to many scratches on my new baby. _In all honesty I was very attached to my old car, and I hated the fact that I had to part with it. But a new car is a new car and I loved it! Stolen or not.

I turned a corner and my wreck of a house came into view. It was an old run down country farm. It was large and spacious. With enough room for a study, a main bedroom, and a room for that little shit that was my daughter. Though she was pretty, just like her mother. A good replacement. I never had anything against incest. A year or two and she would be ripe for picking, wether she liked it or not.

My car pulled to a slow stop in the garage. Letting out a deep sigh I stepped out of the car, pulling out some of the various objects I had brought home with me today. Piling it all up in my arms I proceeded to make my way into the house, kicking the door open with my foot then letting it swish close behind me. The kitchen opened up to me and I placed today's necessities down on the bench.

I looked around the kitchen; old warn wall paper was peeling from the walls; the kitchen table was old and rickety; and the appliances were rusting with age. Yep this was home alright. Home had always felt like this, even when I was a boy. Dark, warn and old. It brought memories of my childhood, ones that make me smile. All that pain, that lust, the blood... I gasped for air as a sensation washed over me. Then the urges came, they make me lust for blood, for sex. A bloody fulfilment that could bring peace to his wild mind. But no; she was not ripe yet, not ripe for picking. Now was not the time to lose control.

Shaking the feeling away, I took a small bottle in my hand and made my way to my study. Closing the door behind me, I leant against it for support as I poured some of the powdery substance into the palm of my hand. Hand shaking, I brought it up to my nose, inhaling deeply. I let out a content sigh as the affects of the drug washed over me. Pulling myself from the door I made my way over to the desk, slumping down into the seat.

I looked over at the bits of paper that spread across the table. Phone numbers, meeting times, random notes; it all suddenly felt pointless to me. Why would I need any of that? I could do anything and get away with it! Never had I been caught by the police. Even after countless drug sales, many stolen goods, a kidnapping, and a murder. I was invincible!

Pulling my head back I let out a laugh that would chill the blood of anyone else. I felt so good, so alive!

The sound of the front door closing suddenly pulled me from my moment of joy. I blinked; _she was not in her room? Why was she out at this time? She is always in her room when I get home..._

Curiosity peaking, I slowly made my way over to the door. I placed my ear on the door, listening intently, and waiting for her to walk past. Sure enough her footsteps passed within moments. For a moment I stood in shock as the sounds of a happy tune being hummed reached my ears. _Happy Tune?_

Scrunching my hands up in tight balls, I swallowed the urge to go out and punish her until that happiness had been sapped out of her. Now was not the time for violence, now was the time to observe.

When the sound of footsteps finally faded, I made my way back over to my desk. This was a strange development... _why was she so happy? Was my control over her breaking like her mother's did? She always did have that spark of defiance in her eyes...Or is it something far worse... It's been hunting season right! What if she had come across a stray hunter in the woods! What if the put bad thoughts in her head! What if they had taken her before me! _

Just at the thought of someone picking her before I, made my blood boil. Taking in a deep breath I calmed down. _I don't need to go to work tomorrow. So when she disappears off into the woods I will follow her. Find out exactly what is going on..._

Stepping into the woods was like stepping into a new world. It was almost like walking into a city... except different. Instead of the sounds of cars and industrial equipment, birds and the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves filled my ears. It was strange, different; I had never taken the time to actually step into the woods. That was his wife and child's domain, a place they could go so they would not go completely crazy; I was not that cruel.

Slowly I made my way though leaf litter, trying to be as quite as possible while scouting the terrain for anything that would cause trouble. But all was quiet, no trouble emerged. Far too quite, it was chilling, empty. I had never been in such a quite place. A sensation suddenly rushed over me; fear, anxiety, forbidding. The sound of my heart thumping in my chest filled my ears and the desire to run filled my body. _What is happening to me?_ Using a close by tree for support, I hung my head, breathing deeply, desperately trying to calm down the sudden feelings that had enveloped my body.

Just as quickly as they came the feelings were once again gone. Taking a few more deep breaths, I pushed myself back upright. I continued on into the forest.

...

After about an hour of stumbling over extruding roots and unseen fallen branches I finally found my way to a clearing. Soft grass grew, and absentmindedly swayed in the wind. I small path through the grass was warn from continuous use. With my eyes I followed its weaving path until a saw a large weeping willow that grew close to a large and forbidding cliff. Its branches swayed in the wind and concealed whatever was among its branches. Narrowing my gaze I noticed a shadow at the base of the tree. I felt for sure that it was Amber, it was about her height and you could almost make out her messy hair blowing in time with the Willows branches. Then something else caught my eye, another shadow, this time sitting among the branches.

Anger, panic and fear surged through me. _There can't be anyone else out here! Most of it is private property and there is no way anyone could scale that cliff! _Taking a few deep breaths, I closed my eyes. Thinking carefully I came up with a plan of action. I would quietly make my way over, slip past the curtain of leafs, catch Amber with whoever else she was seeing. If the person is someone I really don't want to mess with I would just politely tell Amber that it is time to go home.

Opening my eyes again I looked over towards the Willow, only to find one shadow behind the drooping branches. I rubbed my eyes a few times until I was sure that there was only one figure left standing under the tree.

My anger began to rise, what kind of sick mind games was this child trying to play with me! I was sure she had hidden her friend; she was defiantly hiding _something_ from me.

Ignoring all around me, I stomped my way through the grass, my eyes only set on the brat. With a strong arm I ripped the curtain of leaves to the side and stormed my way in amongst the leaves.

She was sitting in the grass; her expression was that of fear and shock. I whispered distastefully, "What are you doing here?"

With a small stuttering voice she answered, "I… I was just… just sitting here father."

She was lying, she was trying to fool me, trick me into believing that she was not up to something with that sweet, innocent, frightened voice of hers; it made my blood boil.

With death in my voice I whispered, "Home, now."

Faster than a hare running from a fox, she quickly skittered away and ran back into the forest and towards home. With a sharp eye I scanned the area for any signs of someone else. Small carvings in the tree drew my attention. It was a picture of two people, they were holding hands. Then another shape caught my attention, it was a tiny battle scene of two people hunting a deer with spears. I looked at the pictures and came to the conclusion; Amber had stumbled upon a hunter after all, and he seemed to be teaching her stuff he didn't want her to know…

* * *

Hi guys!

Well that chapter got finished pretty quick :)

I guess I didnt realise all those nights how close I was getting to having it done xD

In case you didnt notice, this one is from Amber's fathers point of view.

I hope this chapter made you all hate him even more! It sure made me hate him more xD gosh I swear he is the hardest character ever! I hate to write from his point of view!

Weither I will be doing it again or not... you will find out soon mwhahahaha

Im gonna start on the next chapter soon :3 I hope... but I warn you guys, the next one will probably be the best. You guys will have the ride of you lives! So get excited for it! Who knows what will happen! O_O


	10. Dear Readers

Dear readers.

These last two years I have been undertaking serious study, with finishing my high schooling just last year. It has been rather busy, and I have just started studying a Bachelor of Multimedia at university. Due to study, trying to find a job, and trying to move out, I have not had time to let my creative juices flow and write another chapter.

Do not threat, the plot is still strong in my mind.

I have promised a few of you that I will write another chapter in my term off in October. I intend to keep that promise.

Thank you my readers for not giving up on me and inspiring me to continue to write.

Regards Possumpie.


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